{"id":2473111,"date":"2016-06-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prgn.cullencommunications.ie\/keepin-the-customer-satisfied\/"},"modified":"2022-01-19T08:00:34","modified_gmt":"2022-01-19T08:00:34","slug":"keepin-the-customer-satisfied","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prgn.cullencommunications.ie\/es_es\/presidents-blog\/keepin-the-customer-satisfied\/","title":{"rendered":"Keepin\u2019 the Customer Satisfied"},"content":{"rendered":"

The positive impact a rave review has on your product or service can’t be beat. Whatever the budget, the size of the billboard or the impact of the TV campaign, “nothing,” as the dearly-departed Prince sang, “compares” to a happy customer championing your cause.<\/h3>\n

It’s the reason services such as TripAdvisor exist \u2013 as long as, of course, you can trust that the reference is genuine.<\/p>\n

However, the opposite is also true. Nothing is as bad as being trashed by a disgruntled customer, in conversation or by means of an attack on social media. You might think that your small voice shouting in the consumer wilderness does not really have an impact, but then from that one little snowflake too many an avalanche is born.<\/p>\n

The snowflake for me this week was a UK mobile service provider that trapped me in an endless looping nightmare between their help desk bunnies (wherever their call centre warrens are) and the sales staff at a number of their high street stores.<\/p>\n

In the end \u2013 and I\u2019m not really sure it has<\/em> ended yet \u2013 I feel fortunate to have escaped with my sanity intact and regret for the hair I have pulled from my already fast-balding scalp in frustration.<\/p>\n

Initially, I thought that buying a local SIM card for pay-as-you-go service while I visited the UK for a month or so would save me horrendous “roving costs “on my contract in South Africa. But that proved expensive, so I decided to get a local contract instead.<\/p>\n

“The best way to do it,” said the extremely friendly sales rep in the high street shop “is to get a local contract. As soon as it’s activated, implement the 30-day cancellation clause via our help desk. This way, you\u2019ll get a month of calls and data, and if you convert to pay-as-you-go, you\u2019ll get to keep the number for your future visits to the UK.”<\/p>\n

Convinced by her charm and sales pitch, I signed along the dotted line. Unfortunately, as Julia Roberts said in Pretty Girl, “Big Mistake”.<\/p>\n

This nightmare began the night I called the helpline to cancel the contract. The call centre lady, in an act of seriously efficient stupidity, cancelled the contract as we spoke. In mid-sentence, my phone went dead. No Service. No calls, no nothing except what Paul Simon described as, “the sound of silence”.<\/p>\n

The next morning, I took a 30-minute bus ride to their shop. “We can\u2019t help you,” said the sales lady. “We only do sales, so you\u2019ll need to phone the help desk.”<\/p>\n

“I can’t,\u201d I replied, ” because they killed my connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

She pointed to a landline (yes, a landline in a cell phone shop) over in the corner. After a long wait, my plea for help was answered and my service reinstated.<\/p>\n

That night, I tried again to cancel the contract. “You can\u2019t do that while on the phone,” said the call centre bunny. \u201cGo to the store.\u201d<\/p>\n

So another day and another 30-minute bus journey led me back to the same spot I\u2019d already been in. I was told to call the helpdesk. And so it went on and on and on until I was turned into a ranting lunatic as my call was passed from one shop to another \u2013 and one help desk bunny to another as if I was a hand grenade with the pin pulled…which I guess I was in a manner of speaking.<\/p>\n

In the end, the problem appears to have been solved, although I\u2019m not quite sure what the deal is: my London mobile works and I can make and receive calls and texts. So I will let sleeping dogs lie – for 30 days that is.<\/p>\n

One day, I hope I\u2019ll be able extract myself from this mobile hell and make the right connection with a service provider whose helpdesk can actually help \u2013 and a sales staff who can do more than point their complaining customers to a landline in the corner of the shop.<\/p>\n

So much for the ads. \u00a0The company now has one seriously unhappy customer. No ad spend budget or clever marketing campaign will help them win me back as a customer. It’s about service, guys. Cross that hurdle and any product will sell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/h3>\n

More information<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Wikipedia: Public Relations Global Network<\/p>\n

Official Website HWB Communications: www.hwb.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n

Portrait: Evelyn John Holtzhausen<\/p>\n

Photo: Evelyn John Holtzhausen<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/h3>\n

About Public Relations Global Network<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Clients across six continents depend on the combined resources of the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN) to deliver targeted public relations campaigns in markets around the world.\u00a0With revenues of more than $110 million (U.S.D.), PRGN is one of the world\u2019s largest international public relations networks.\u00a0PRGN harnesses the resources of approx. 50 independent public relations firms and more than 900 communications professionals to connect international companies and organizations with individual and culturally diverse markets globally.\u00a0Visit PRGN online at prgn.com<\/a> or on twitter @PRGN<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The positive impact a rave review has on your product or service can\u2019t be beat. Whatever the budget, the size of the billboard or the impact of the TV campaign, \u201cnothing,\u201d as the dearly-departed Prince sang, \u201ccompares\u201d to a happy customer championing your cause.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1271],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1817],"class_list":["post-2473111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presidents-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nKeepin\u2019 the Customer Satisfied - PRGN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prgn.cullencommunications.ie\/es_es\/presidents-blog\/keepin-the-customer-satisfied\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keepin\u2019 the Customer Satisfied - PRGN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The positive impact a rave review has on your product or service can\u2019t be beat. 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