You gotta love the instant gratification the internet provides. One minute you're being ticked off by a company you were thinking of doing business with, then 2 minutes later you are writing about your bad experience on your blog for all to read!
I was jumping around the internet today, doing some research on a new firm to invest my retirement savings with. I'd seen the ad's on T.V. for Charles Schwab and thought I'd check them out. After clicking through 8-10 pages on their site over a 5 minute period, a pop-up window (that wasn't blocked by my Google toolbar for some reason) asked me if I'd be interested in chatting with a Charles Schwab customer service professional. I had a few questions, so what the heck...might as well. What a great use of technology! They noticed I was on the site for a while, probably a prime target as a new customer.
Well, Schwab does it all wrong. After clicking the button to accept the chat I was put in que waiting for someone to help me out. Wait a minute, they asked ME to chat...not the other way around. The chat window said I was next in line. Little did I know that next in line meant a 12 MINUTE WAIT! After the first few minutes the only reason I kept waiting was to see what the final time would be.
To make matters worse, once a customer service person finally came online to help me out, he closed our chat after my first line of text which expressed my frustration with the process. You call that customer service? I mean these people's slogan is "Talk to Chuck" yet I found that nearly impossible.
What a perfect example of a poor use of technology. They had the capability to target me for a chat, but failed to follow through with proper customer service. While some businesses use the internet to gain customers, Schwab is using it to turn them away.
Charles Schwab, you failed to get my business. Congratulations.
-Jeff the Great
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