The Importance of Customer Service in the Digital Age

Posted by Karen on Jul 25, 2014 12:00:00 AM
Customer service: it’s something that has previously just been associated with businesses that offer personal services to customers; however over the years it has become increasingly important for businesses in the technology sector. It is important that companies understand the importance of customer service when it comes to expanding their businesses and encouraging client retention. However, we are still seeing cases where companies feel that they are above the need to provide a good level of customer service, which is why Fluidata does things a little differently.

Comcast Controversy

Comcast is one of the biggest Internet service providers in the US; last week a phone conversation between one of their ‘retention specialists’ and technology journalist Ryan Block went viral. Block called the company in order to cancel his Internet service, however the responses he received included: “Help me understand why you don't want faster Internet?" and "I'm trying to help you. You're not letting me help you." Due to the retention specialist’s manner, Mr Block recorded the last eight minutes of the phone call and then tweeted it to his eighty two thousand followers.

Shortly after the audio clip went viral, Comcast apologised to Mr Block and said that they would take action against the employee. However, this led to even more online vitriol as many individuals claimed that it was not the employee’s fault for the way he acted but the company’s for instilling a culture of fear within their staff. One employee even claimed that "These guys fight tooth and nail to keep every customer because if they don't meet their numbers they don't get paid."

Taking on the Technology Giants

Comcast isn’t the only established Internet service provider that has been criticised for the way in which they treat their customers recently, in fact BT Openreach was also investigated by the competition regulators Ofcom due to their poor customer service. Ofcom claimed that BT were failing to provide their customers with promised download speeds and that the time that they took to respond to phone and broadband issues was below industry standards.

The problem with most Internet service providers – both here and in the US – is that only a few own most of the market. For example, in the UK British Telecoms and Virgin Media are two of the biggest Internet service providers, meaning that if they offer their customers poor service they have very little option to go anywhere else. This monopolisation of the market is just one of the reasons why some large companies fail to understand the importance of customer service.

How is Fluidata Different?

At Fluidata we don’t just provide one-size-fits-all solutions to our customers, but a range of innovative products that can be adapted to suit each business’s needs. Furthermore, we believe that our customer service personnel are an integral part of the team, which means that they not only work with our clients during the acquisition stage but also continue to work with them once they join Fluidata as a respected customer.

Fluidata’s Managing Director, Piers Daniell, has also implemented a ground-breaking new system where account managers are paid bonuses for both attainting clients and retaining them, bonuses which, if they choose, can be reinvested into initiatives that improve customer relations. Furthermore, we offer our clients ‘SLA Plus’ which includes standards for latency, packet loss and Jitter, and a rebate increase of 20% in the unlikely event of additional downtime.

Fluidata Customer Success Manager, Simon Matthews, said: "Customer service is often overlooked in this industry, and customers are made to feel like an inconvenience to larger providers. At Fluidata our approach is to place customer service at the centre of all that we do. Recently we have made some internal changes that will further support our customers and allow us to improve on our already enviable customer service record".

The rapid growth of Fluidata over the years has not just been due to our clients, but also each and every member of our staff, which is why we treat anyone who is part of the Fluidata team with the same level of respect and care as our clients.

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