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RSS FeedOctober 23rd, 2011
806-686-1186 Phishing Scam by SMS
So, now phishing has moved to SMS. Here is the SMS I got from this number:
8066861186@growth_alert.com
Action required for your Wells Fargo account.
Call 1-806-6861-186 and follow instructions !
I don’t have a Wells Fargo account, but that shouldn’t stop me from calling them and giving all the information, right? (Reports at 800notes.com confirm this as phishing spam.) So, I called them, and this is the shpiel they give on the phone:
Welcome to customer service – electronic verification services.
Our reference show that your account is restricted. You are required to run a brief verification process in order to verify that you are in possession of your credit card.
During this process to protect your information and to maintain complete privacy customer service assistance will not be available as the entire verification process is computer generated and conducted.
Please stay on the line while we transfer your call to activate your card and remove the restriction and remove the restriction.
FAIL!!!
Now enter your 16 digits credit card number followed by the # key.
FAIL!!!
Now enter your 16 digits credit card number followed by the # key.
I like how they are willing to do so many things even though I am not even their customer! Really, brings tears to my eyes. It is really like that Nordstrom guy who cheerfully gift wrapped products a customer bought at Macy’s.
September 28th, 2010
“You forgot to get your empanada”, and other lessons in Customer Service
After starving for 12 hours for my annual physical, I decided to treat myself with some gourmet Taco Bell food – 2 burritos, 1 pepsi and 1 Caramel Apple Empanada. After all, with the triglycerides locked in for a year, what is the harm in eating foods that have 23% of your daily requirement of fats. (“If you don’t measure your cholesterol etc., it doesn’t change” — Amrinder).
When I pulled out of the drive through, there was no empanada in it, and if I was smarter and more health conscious I would have left the matters at that, but as I said, it was after 12 hours of fasting and it was a different Amrinder. So, as I pulled into the drive through again, the woman said “Forgot your empanada?”. Did I forget it? No, I ordered one. You took the order, and noted it. You charged me for it. I paid for it. Here, this receipt even shows it. The only thing that happened was that you forgot to put it into the brown bag.
Examples like this of poor/mediocre customer service abound. Still, it must be said that Taco Bell (and McD and BK) has great customer service. A company of this size can’t possibly exist with some very good customer service standards in place. In this particular case, perhaps the customer service representative was just not taught what to do in case she forgot to include something in the order. And the customer service management at Yum brands probably spends a fair bit of time reviewing the processes, the processes for making processes, and such.
When I wrote about decalcification of Jura coffee machine, within a few minutes, I got a blog comment from a customer service rep explaining the decalcification process and where I could get supplies etc. Of course, cynics might say that the company is trying to sell the supplies, but from a customer perspective, the service rocks!
Similarly when I wrote about how unintuitive the user-project assignment piece in BizMerlin was (the way I put it, it was designed to take everyone off of project
s 
), the BizMerlin team responded very quickly and their visual way of showing users to projects assignments is the best in the business. Every month as I go through resources and where they are allocated, it is an indispensable tool to memorialize that.
But back to TacoBell, and I shouldn’t let that inviting picture of empanada go without being accompanied by the nutrition facts.
October 24th, 2009
Best Buy, Theft Prevention, Israel and Customer Service
This morning I finally decided to get a new camera – the Sony W180, but let me not take the credit for it – the previous Nikon Coolpix had coolly stopped working entirely, after 2 years of great service. Pretty much every camera now a days is 10 or 12 Megapixels, which in my humble opinion is just crazy because I cannot even find the difference between images snapped using 5 and 6 megapixel cameras. (But don’t let my feeble eyesight get in the way of your 40 mega pixel ambitions).
Best Buy has perfected the art of selling to technically challenged people, and I saw many cases of that glorious event happening as I walked through the store. The Sony W180 was available for $129, but you also need to buy your 20$ Sony digital memory card (standard camera memory cards don’t work, and for pretty much the first time, I also decided to buy the 35$ 2-year warranty on it. The sales people there are extremely cordial, and helpful, and that is one of the strengths of Best Buy (although, just read on).
When I checked out of the store, the person on the exit door gave me a hard hard look, kind of reminding me of the time when I stood in the passport control line when entering Israel and answering questions about whether I am Jewish (I am not) or Muslim (I am not), and whether I am writing a book or a blog (I am yet to figure out what the interrogator was getting at on that one). The only difference is that this time I was just exiting a store after shelling out 200$, and by jove – the receipt was in the same clear bag that the salesperson packed and gave me, and was clearly visible from even the outside.
I remember a while back, Michael Righi got arrested for not showing the receipt at a store, so I am not sure if I would like to rebel in the same way, but that said, the experience of shopping at Best Buy didn’t become better for me either. I have a steely resolve never to buy at Best Buy again.
So, what does this have to do with customer service, software or with anything? Perhaps not much, but it does reiterate a cheesy lesson we are taught in school – a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I am currently involved with many customer service initiatives in my day job at NTELX, and it just reiterates to me that when checking the customer satisfaction, we don’t have to get an “overall” or an “average” picture, rather, check what is the worst aspect of dealing with us from each client’s perspective, then work backwards from there.
October 11th, 2009
Customer Service as a crucial differentiator
Yesterday, I got $3.99 Horizon Organic Lowfat Milk from shoppers. When I got home, I noticed it was already curded. Now, if the carton that I picked up has gone bad, the others must be too. So, as a responsible consumer, I take it back to Shoppers and stand in line. The customer service person asks for my receipt. I am thinking of Seinfeld drycleaning episode. Really, what difference does it make – I don’t want my 4$ back, I just want you to know that you have rotten milk on your shelves. Then, I give her the receipt and she returns 4$ to me. She doesn’t thank me for taking the time to bringing back the rotten milk, but I do hear her page “Dairy Sales Associate to Customer Service” as I leave. So, I hope they did the right thing.
Later on, I drove to Jiffy Lube to get my car an oil change. Starting from simple tricks like looking up my name from the car tag and using that to greet me “Welcome back Dr. Arora” as I pull in to having awesome leather furniture in the waiting room, to carefully leaving the door open as I get back into my car, and my car key nicely hanging where I can find it, they make everything a breeze and a pleasant surprise. You hardly care what you pay (as long as it is in the range).
From a software or solutions company perspective, customer service is just as important. At NTELX, we have a saying – a customer who complains is our best friend, because that presents an opportunity to make things right. When any agency buys our software, they rely on the fact that we will help all users of the system reach their goals. If you call me, I will pick up the phone myself. If you email me, I will read it, and get back to you. Why do we do this? Simply so we can hear our customers and improve our software and make the problems disappear.