So here we go, from bad to worse.  You’d think you couldn’t get much worse than a receptionist hanging up on you, and then you come home on a Friday afternoon to an unexpected and unwarranted bill.  This week’s entry focuses on my experience calling Shaw Communication’s customer service centre on February 4th at 6:00pm.  The call will be examined using chapters 6, 8, and 9 of our course textbook, and will link the encounter to such concepts as complaint solicitation, the effects of service recovery, customer recovery expectations, service recovery strategies, and service blueprinting. 

As a bit of background, my husband and I had renewed our Shaw account in October 2010 with a student discount, which required the account holder to either prepay the cable and internet charges for the period of the discount, or arrange for an automatic withdrawal of the monthly bill.  We chose to prepay the charges, and paid approximately $300 to cover our services up to the end of April 2011.   Or so we thought.

When I stopped in at home after class on Friday afternoon, I picked up our mail on my way in.  Amongst the flyers, there was an envelope from Shaw, which I almost threw into our shredding pile without even opening, as it looked like just another direct mail campaign, attempting badger me in to signing up for their phone services.  Upon second thought, I decided to open it anyways, and boy, was I glad I did.

Inside was an invoice for $90, documenting charges for next month, and even an unpaid portion for last month (which we never received an invoice for, by the way).  Already in a bad mood after a long week and a frustrating afternoon, I was highly irritated.  I only had an hour or so before I had to go pick up my husband from work, so I decided to call Shaw while I waited for him to finish up his day.

Contrary to my usual expectations of an exceptionally long wait to speak with anyone, I actually had my class answered (by a real person!) in a reasonable amount of time.  I was probably not the nicest, most polite person on the phone with the representative, but I managed to keep my frustration in check enough to avoid telling the poor guy off, swearing profusely, or hanging up.  After explaining multiple times that we were under the impression that we had prepaid our account up to April, the representative finally figured out that the wrong discount had been applied to our account all the way back in October, so he would change the discount retroactively and we would be left with a large credit on our account after paying the bill.

At this point I had given up on getting the guy to understand that we were not going to pay a bill for an account we did not owe any money on, so I thanked him and decided to let it go for now.  When my husband got off work, I told him what had happened.  He ended up calling Shaw again the next week to make sure they discount code had been fixed, at which time the representative he spoke to clarified that everything had been sorted out, and we did not have to pay the bill.

In terms of my level of satisfaction, I would rate it as a 1.  I have had numerous similar experiences in the past with Shaw, and have always been left feeling extremely dissatisfied.  They almost never have enough staff working (either at their call centre or at their physical location), leading to long waits that consistently end with dissatisfaction.  Up until recently, there has not been another internet service provider in our area, and we have been forced to return to Shaw’s unsatisfactory services year after year.  As for my likelihood of returning, until the end of our prepayment period, we will obviously be staying with Shaw.  However, once that ends in April, we will seriously be looking into switching providers, for all of the reasons explained above. 

Now that I relived that wonderful experience, let’s relate to a few of our course concepts.  First, the idea of establishing a strong complaint solicitation program (Zeithaml et al., 2007, p. 134-135) is something that I feel Shaw desperately needs to do.  They need to work on closing Provider Gap 1, and start listening to their customers through research.

Next, I found that there were some very interesting facts on the effects of service recovery in chapter 8 of the textbook.  For example, resolving service failures effectively can have a “strong impact on customer satisfaction, loyalty, word of mouth communication, and bottom line performance” (Zeithaml et al., 2007, p. 189).  However, 50% of customers with a problem receive no response from the service provider, creating customer “terrorists” that can be extremely detrimental to the reputation of an organization (Zeithaml et al., 2007, p. 190-191).  I most certainly agree with both of these statements, as I’ve already told multiple people about my experience, and none of what I said was good. 

Thirdly, there is the effect of service failure recovery on employee morale and retention (Zeithaml et al., 2007, p. 191).  This effect was clear in my encounter, as the representative sounded down-trodden from the second he answered my call, and I quite honestly cannot blame him.  Receiving angry calls from irritated customers all day cannot be an enjoyable experience, and I’m sure their turn-over rate is quite high.

This experience is made worse for employees when they are not allowed by their employers to make decisions that would help them solve customers’ problems.  Using such strategies as acting quickly and empowering employees (Zeithaml et al., 2007, p. 202) can aid organizations immensely in meeting customer recovery expectations.  And it’s not always about money.  Customers want to feel that the company understands the problem and is accountable for its actions.  Apologies, explanations, assurances that the problem will not be repeated, and an opportunity to vent are all techniques that cost the company relatively little, but that have a strong impact on customer satisfaction after a service failure (Zeithaml et al. 2007, p. 196).  I feel that this is a very accurate theory, and had the representative I spoke to at least apologized for the mistake and unwarranted bill, I would have been a lot more satisfied with my experience. 

Finally, a note on service blueprinting, which can be a great way to improve existing services through mapping of the service system (Zeithaml et al., 2007, p. 228-229).  Funnily enough, Alastair Dryburgh has created a kind of mock blueprint for how he feels call centres are run, and it’s less than friendly (2010, p. 16).  But it definitely echoes the sentiments of those who have spent hours on hold, only to find that they called the number for the wrong department, and might not even be able to be transferred.

On a more serious note, Shaw really should considering blueprinting its service process, and taking into consideration some of the recent technological advances that have enabled customer service representatives to better handle customers, using complex software that defines specific complaints and even decodes callers’ personalities (Steiner, 2011).  Doing so could improve a variety of aspects of Shaw’s service model, improving relationships with both employees and customers. 

Works Cited

Dryburgh, A. (2010). Don’t You Believe it…Your Call is Important to Us. Management Today.

Steiner, C. (2011). He Feels Your Pain. Forbes.

Zeithaml, V., Bitner, M. J., & Gremler, D. D. (2007). Services Marketing. McGraw-Hill.