Business is business and the business of business should be happy customers. Burger King is an example of not so great customer relationships. Have a complaint about the last meal you ate, or the service? You can contact Burger King, on your dime, nine to five, Monday through Friday. How is that for customer convenience?
I suppose it is easier for Burger King as they do not have nearly so many complaints they have to listen to daily. Now they can guess whether I am happy or not. I used to eat at Burger King about once a week, for say an average of $5.50 a meal. that works out to about $206.00 a year. I became tired of the frequency of substandard meals so I do not eat there any more.
Of course I tried to call Burger King, but with a 305 area code, it is my dime calling to Florida, prime time. I figure Burger Kings, choice of customer care has saved me some money. I know eat in for that meal instead of Burger King.
QWest the communications company is another poor service provider from my past dealings with them. They thought I should resign up for their package deal that looks inviting until you add in all the extra fees and charges. They also said they could give me internet at a connection rate of somewhere between 56K and 256K because I am too far away from a hookup. When I used to use Qwest they were always quick to explain how any problem I was having with my phone lines was my problem. Of course they would be happy to work the problem for me for a service call. I am glad Vonage arrived in my home town.
Comcast Cable network is another representation of how not to run the customer service portion of a business. Comcast in many cities has a monopoly. You either use Comcast or you do without cable. They enter into a package deal with individual cities, so if they win the bid, they are the Cable provider of choice. I have been using Linux and a Mac for over five years now (Linux). Yet when I go to the Comcast home page, the page tells me my browser of choice is out of date. I should be using IE7 to have he best experience.
I sent Comcast an email about this issue, and of course I received a canned reply about where to look for information regarding my internet problem, whatever it may be. There was quite a list of resources to cover all bases. I received a phone call from Comcast the next day in reference to my internet connection problem and how they were ready to help me.
I explained that if my email had actually been read, it would be obvious I have no internet connection problem. Comcast web page has a standards problem. I explained that I use web browsers using the same engine that Firefox web browser uses, completely compatible with web standards. Of course no one had actually read my email, and the person I spoke with was from a technical background, but they promised me they would look into the issue and let me know what they found out. I feel bad for that person to be placed in that position.
Am I a happy Comcast customer? About as happy as I would be with flying cows. It seems whenever I call Comcast, they either read me a canned script, or they do not know the answer. I see Comcast using an apologetic business model. Don’t go for customer satisfaction, apologize and claim ignorance.
On the other hand, there is McDonalds. I never thought I would ever find anything good to say about McDonalds. I was seventeen when McDonalds first hit my little town. What a deal, double cheese burgers with extra grease with fries and a shake, all for a low price. What more could a teenage male want for a meal? As the years went by, and I learned more about nutrition, I realized that the McDonald’s business model worked very well. Serving customer wants was their number one priority even if there customers were killing themselves with what they ate. Business ethics and personal ethics are light years apart, and McDonalds did what McDonalds does best. Serve some meat, fat, and sugar better and cheaper than anyone else on the planet.
McDonalds has changed lately, and still remains one of the best in the world at what they do. McDonalds is starting to do business a little healthier these days. I now eat there about twice a week, McDonald’s salads are a great value and healthy too. No wonder McDonalds keeps growing at such a rate, and other companies struggle to keep what they have.
Customer satisfaction wins every time.
