[BC] Poor customer support

[Jeff Glass]

In a message dated 2/25/2010 6:12:15 PM Central Standard Time, broadcast-request at radiolists.net writes:

>Another issue with customer service is that it's expensive and has to be
>built in to the price of the product. Consumers are very price sensitive,
>so they'll buy the product that costs $10 less. Businesses are in a tough
>situation in pricing their products and still making money while providing
>good customer support. Ideally a company with a strong reputation for good
>customer support and good products would continue to sell products at the
>higher price required to achieve quality and support. But a lot of
>consumers don't see it that way.

Harold,

I agree. Poor customer support results in a consumer buying a product from that business ONCE. Nobody wants to waste time they don't have.

Many companies, computer hardware manufacturers in particular, could reduce customer service costs if they spent more time with product development and thereby eliminate many of the customer support calls. I bought a device from B & B electronics that was a total piece of junk; it was firmware defective. B & B and I both wasted a lot of time because the product was not ready for prime time. I will buy from B&B again because of their dedication to customer support.

Most of my calls to customer support are because of a product that was not quite right when it left the factory. It was not defective in the usual sense, but more because the product was not finished before it went into full production. Companies that do business this way are shooting themselves in the foot.

I would rather spend a million bucks on product refinement, than spend a million on customer support. My company and my product will do better by developing a good trouble free product reputation. Time is money. True, the desire to start making money on the product development costs is very tempting. Customer support may be able to handle the premature product shortcoming, but the customer is going to be upset because of the wasted time. Everyone's time is valuable. I'll always spend my money on the product that's the least hassle with the best tech support.

My latest product disaster was with the HP printer. I hope HP enjoys my money because it's the last time they will sell me anything; somewhat because of the hassle getting it going, but mainly because of their pathetically incapable tech support. Savor the flavor, HP; you now have N -1 customers.

Unfortunately, it's hard to quantify the profit made by investing in a good customer support department. I sure would hate to be put in the position of making that calculation :-)

Jeff Glass