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These days we find ourselves interacting with technically driven items whether personally or professionally on an ever increasing basis.
It follows that periodically things can and do go wrong with the result that we need the assistance of those with more direct experience of the technology in question in order that a solution is reached.

I feel quite sure also that your mileage like mine varies when it comes down to the quality of the support in terms of it’s overall delivery by the organisation concerned and those individuals tasked with determining the most appropriate solution and it’s delivery, once they have ascertained sufficient detail concerning the problem at hand.

In this post I will give you two examples.. Once concerning Kingston Communications (my local telephone service provider) and Apple, supplier to me of a number of items, the most recent being an iPhone 4.

I had good reason recently when checking the calculations comprising my telephone bill to phone the supplier as the bill was significantly in error. After a little over 30 minutes on hold (Yes really!! 30 ***** minutes!) listening to just how important my call was to them and how if I wanted I could give in and call back later I got through only to be told they were busy with a new package launch, hence the delay… The lady did say sorry but the launch clearly was a valid excuse (from their perspective) and understandably by this time I was already not happy with the “service”. After some explanation she agreed that the bill seemed wrong and would have it checked. Some time later I received a call confirming the error and that their systems people were looking into the cause (no apology) and that a replacement bill would be in the post. I queried as to how many other people might have fallen victim to the error in system calculation and who therefore may simply have paid their bill unknowingly. AlI the lady said was “I don’t know” offering no assurance that a search would be made for other people in a similar position to myself, and so perhaps profits will be up again this year? Today, I received a downwardly revised bill which I have yet to check, with no letter, no written apology, just a compliments slip and nothing more.

Now, I think you will agree that this is an example of appallingly bad customer service. 0/10!

At the beginning of this post I mentioned two organisations, the other was Apple computer, the provider of my iPhone 4 and as you may have guessed what follows is an example of good customer service.

Actually that is very unfair of me, I should say  ”absolutely outstanding customer service” and one by which all others should indeed be judged.

Things started with a most unfortunate accident involving our upstairs toilet which had blocked! I was in the process of plunging away the blockage when my first generation iPhone slipped out of my shirt pocket and into said toilet – despite the fact that things were sterile at that stage and that the iPhone was removed within a couple of seconds it had died a death, ( no doubt over the indignant way it had been treated) so it was time to get a new one. (Just thought I would add a bit of additional ‘interest’ !)

The new iPhone arrived, I plugged into my MacBookPro, and got errors as it tried to hook up to iTunes. I’m a pretty full on technical person but despite my efforts I could not get the thing to play ball. So a phone call to apple’s support department to see what to do next. I was prepared for a longish wait, a number of pointless Q&A exchanges with a number of hoop’s through which to jump and to be fair, technical support is one of those generally thankless jobs which is not often appreciated by management and even less so by the general public who at times can be very rude (I owned a medium sized Computer services company for eleven years and so have seen this first hand).

So, what actually happened? first of all the phone was answered by an auto attendant (I don’t personally like these but this one was minimal and efficient – a good thing) Upon selecting the service I needed the phone was answered almost immediately by a lady who told me her name was Angeline Nangala (hope my spelling is ok sorry if not) she took some basic details and then got down to the initial fact finding – It wasn’t long before I found my self actually enjoying the call! This lady was very polite, had a sense of humour as well as a relaxed and helpful attitude. I explained the situation, stated that I was pretty certain that the firmware was stuffed and found my self disarmed and taken through some checks in a logical flow aimed at getting a concise picture of just what was happening. We got to a point where Angeline exhausted the level of assistance she could provide and it was time for me to be passed to the next level of support. By this time the frustration of the faulty phone was almost a memory.

My call with Angeline had already gone way beyond the normal closing time of the help desk and so I agreed to receive a call back shortly after opening the following day which I was quite happy about given the lateness of the hour.
If this were a marking exercise then 10/10 would have been right and for a whole range of reasons.

As promised, shortly after opening the following day, the phone rang – a call from Apple…

This time I was speaking to a very friendly gentleman – ‘Akeem’ an AppleCare Senior Advisor.

It was clear at the outset by his whole demeanour that his sole intention was to provide me with a solution that I would be completely happy with. He had already got a feel for the issue from Angeline and with a few more tests he agreed that this problem would be best resolved by replacing the iPhone for another as that would likely deliver the quicker solution. After an explanation of the various options open too me I chose the manner of replacement I was happy with and Akeem did the rest. At the end of the call I was amazed to have him thank me for being such a thoughtful and considerate customer! Now that was a first for me, EVER (not that I’m a prat with everyone else, I’m not – I always try to be understanding unless of course the person at the other end is awkward and then I can be seriously difficult myself.). So all in all tier two support in the case of ‘Akeem’ get’s my vote with a 10/10 also.

Well done Apple!

It is experiences like the latter one that only go to ensure you either already are or soon become a loyal and long term customer.
Since my premature retirement I moved over to Apple as a customer (from Microsoft – had had it with all the software in-congruencies and O.S. updates) and have stayed with them ever since adding products as funds allowed. These days I run a MacBookPro with which I am totally happy, an airport router, a first generation iPad 3G 64GB. ( I messed up there though in trying to sell it on an ebay auction ending just two days after the announcement of the iPad 2. Had I listed it just a couple of days earlier when they where being bought for £475 I could have put-to and upgraded but that will sadly have to wait for enough pennies as following the announcement they were going for a couple of hundred pounds less – sadly. Still, the original iPad is still a marvellous piece of kit and in constant daily use.

I now have my new iPhone 4 which performs just as it should, a clear improvement over it’s predecessor in many ways – better everything, really.

And finally, should anyone from apple read this post, then please take the time to give your unseen support staff a well deserved pat on the back – they deserve it! The log reference was: 211699147