Who Are Your Working For?

I had an interesting experience today… I dropped my iPhone yesterday. Strangely, I could still make phone calls, I just couldn’t see half the screen.

Is your delivery reasonable?

Given I’d fulfilled my contract I rang to find out what my options were. I rang the company to be told it would take 5-7 business days to get a new phone to me. Given I’m away in Sydney then New Zealand next week, this translates into being without a phone for almost 2 weeks. Not an option when my mobile is my only business phone plus it’s my mobile office.

Are your systems accurate and flexible?

As a result, I went to a local dealer store. And here’s where it gets interesting.

When the dealer rang to organise the new phone for me he was told someone had already set in motion sending me a phone – almost 10 months ago!

Now, what’s funny about this is that I didn’t get the phone. And, I didn’t even ask for the phone. Someone internally had triggered something on my account which had nothing to do with me personally. Except it did. It was going to take this phone company 48 hours to unlock their own mistake!

To add to this, my contract had ended. I was no longer bound to this company.

Who’s working on your behalf?

Here’s the funny part. The phone company customer service person was delaying my purchase because of an internal error. And, the dealer who runs his own business was coaching me as to what to say to get them to overturn their self-created error.

All of my threats to walk across the road and open an account did not shift the company employee. It was only – upon instructions from the dealer – to ask for my account number and the name of the operator did I get a change in attitude. And, an attempt to resolve my situation.

To cut this long story short… I got my phone. I did have to make a second trip back to the dealer and I got my phone.

Are you really on the side of your customers?

What’s interesting, it felt like I was fighting against a company when I was trying to buy from them. And, the dealer was the one fighting for me. The dealer has a new fan – me!

And, this raises the question: Who are you working for? To maintain the status quo in your organisation or to satisfy your customers?

PS: In case you were wondering, I was with 3 and was opening a new account with Vodafone.