Saturday, August 7, 2010

Customer Service

Since I met Michelle Romanica of Customer Experience Management I’ve paid more attention to deeper aspects of Customer Service.

Here’s an example.

Twice now I’ve driven to Brantford with an eye to touring the Alexander Graham Bell home – a museum of the developer of the telephone. Twice I’ve struck out, both times, from memory, in mid-winter and, knowing me, during the Christmas New Year break.

Should’ve checked the schedule

This time (mid-summer) I checked the web site .

9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., it said. “unless otherwise posted”, but nothing can stop me now. They are open, so it’s Hey! For the open road.

We arrived at 2:30 p.m., two hours should be ample, right?

Nope. The dis-interested clerk told us as she took the $20 bill that they were closing at three today.

So the Brantford museum of Alexander Graham Bell is quite prepared to take our money, but truncate our visit to 30 minutes.

I snatched (it is the correct word) the bill out of her hand and we left.

Once again we walked around the grounds, me muttering. As usual.

Later it struck me as most odd that when an un-announced closure takes place – unannounced on their web site – that they aren’t public relations savvy enough on that one day to allow visitors in for free for that final hour.

What would that mean?

In practical terms, anyone arriving after 2 p.m. would get up to 60 minutes viewing for free.

That ought to rank pretty high on any customer satisfaction survey.

What would it cost them?

$5.50 per customer, but then, they didn’t get our money anyway, so how can they lose what they didn’t have?

And if 60 minutes is not enough to see everything, surely we would return another time.

And at the very least, having seen the museum, we would be two more people who could tell other people about it.

Instead, I tell you, steer clear of Brantford. They don’t know how to welcome tourists, and while they want your tourist dollars, they don’t want you to be happy about it.

Talk to Me !

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