Customer Service Fail: Redskins*

*I mean, are you surprised? Can anyone tell me that they’ve ever had a good customer service experience at any point during their relationship with the Skins?

Anyway, here’s what I wanted to tell you. Check out my new seat at FedEx Field:

Sect 205

This is awesome, especially when you consider that this is where I used to sit:

Sect 443

Let me tell you, this upgrade wasn’t easy. My brother and I tried for years to move down to the lower bowl. Each time we tried, we were met with the usual answer that everyone hears when they have a request for the Redskins Ticket Office: “No.”

Due to the economy (and let’s face it: the Skins’ stellar performance), seats opened up down in the lower bowl. The ticket office called my uncle (who’s been a ticket holder for… 50 years?) and offered him the additional seats. He knew we wanted to move, so he offered them to us. We’re of course paying for these seats, so we wanted to have them in our name. Nope. Can’t be done. Check out the Skins’ ticket transfer policy:

The Redskins season ticket policy allows the transfer of season tickets to immediate family members only (parent, spouse, child, or sibling). Season tickets cannot be transferred between businesses, from a business to an individual, or between non-family members. In order to transfer a season ticket account, please contact the Redskins Ticket Office and request an account transfer form or download the transfer form now. Provide the requested materials (which may include a copy of a death certificate, in the event the account holder of record is deceased) and proof of relationship (birth certificate, marriage license, adoption papers) between the existing account holder of record and the new account holder. The Redskins reserve the right to deny a transfer at their sole discretion. All transfers (if granted) are subject to a non refundable $100.00 per seat transfer fee and remain subject to all other Redskins’ ticket terms, conditions and policies, including but not limited to the following: Redskins tickets constitute revocable licenses and future renewals of Redskins tickets are at the sole discretion of the Redskins.

So, despite the fact that my brother and I are footing the bill for these tickets, and even though we’re Skins season ticket holders already, my uncle wasn’t able to transfer these tickets to us. They’re still in his name and they will continue to be in his name for years to come.

Hey Dan Snyder, I love the Skins. I love them so much, I’m willing to spend a high percentage of my disposable income on a football game. These new tickets cost much more than my old seats (2x) and I even bought two sets of season tickets (the Skins wouldn’t let us drop our old seats this season). But seriously, why do you have to make it so hard to be a fan of the team? You guys were atrocious last night on the field and you don’t care for the customers that pay a big portion of your operating expenses.

I’ll just throw this out there… I haven’t had anything but great customer service from Uncle Ted and his Caps. I love being a Caps season ticket holder.

"Do A Little Dance…"

My sister has a unique outgoing message on her voicemail system. On it, she says:

“Hi this is Julie. At the tone, please do a dance.”

Last night, she was telling me about a unique message that was left on her voicemail system from GoDaddy. Julie has a website that is hosted by GoDaddy and a CSR called her a couple days ago to check in on her to see if she had any questions or concerns with their service. Pretty nice customer service, right? But here’s the kicker: the CSR left the best message for Julie. He said:

“Do-do-do-do-do-do….Oh, sorry, I was just dancing. Hi Julie this is [I forget his name] from GoDaddy.com. We just want to check in and see if you have any questions….”

Julie played it for me yesterday. The CSR actually sang to her on the message. Not creepily, but in a fun way. He made a personal connection with Julie. After she played the message for me, I asked her, “From now on, when you have to host a website, where will you go?”

Of course, she replied, “GoDaddy”.

Even when I asked her if the cost was twice or three times more expensive than another service, she replied that she would go to GoDaddy. That company has always provided great customer service and this episode shows that the tradition continues.

What a great marketing tool by GoDaddy: great employees. By investing in people with personalities and encouraging them to take their time on a call (as opposed to a company like Sprint who has a company-wide policy of getting each call to hang up before seven minutes), they not only manage to keep their valuable existing customer-base, but also find countless new customers. Think about it: Julie told me about the message, and now you’re reading about it on a syndicated blog. I’m sure she told more people about this unique message and provided a personal referral. For free.

Customer Service Nirvana

I just switched my cell phone provider from Sprint over to T-Mobile. The main reason for doing this is that as a Sprint customer, I never felt like I was valued by the company. The CSRs were horrible: they weren’t fluent in English, weren’t empowered to help solve my problems, and didn’t follow SOPs when trying to fix an issue on my account. Seriously, I’m not the only one who complains about Sprint: Check out The Consumerist’s slew of Sprint posts.

Wow, T-Mobile — what an improvement! I knew something was up when I called to activate my phone and they asked me how my day was going, whether I had any exciting plans for the weekend, etc. Plus, they’ve done two things on every call: apologize for the inconvenience that my issue might have caused me and thanked me for being a TMo customer.

Apology: “I can understand how not being able to connect to Verizon’s network to roam while on the Metro can be upsetting. I’m sure you are worried about missing a call or two, but let me explain how T-Mobile works…“

Thanks for being a customer: “I see that you’ve been a T-Mobile customer since February 19th. We truly appreciate it and if there’s anything else we can help you with, we’re here 24/7.”

Think about it: CSRs are the part of your company who have the most direct communication with your customers, and often it’s when your customers are having a problem with your service. If you try to quickly get them off the phone, are unwilling to help them through a problem, etc, how is that going to affect that customer’s feeling about you?

Check out Seth Godin’s post on what he feels causes a lot of customer service issues and how to fix them.

One more thing: From a purely marketing standpoint, think about this post. I’ve just created a free advertisement for T-Mobile. People will read it, will take it as a personal recommendation, and may take it into consideration if they’re also looking to switch providers. In Sprint’s case, they’ve just won another person that’s ready to put them down as much as possible.

It’s all about customer evangelism.