I’m someone who will do just about anything to avoid calling customer service; that kind of phone call is my worst nightmare. While these bad interactions can often be humorous, they can easily turn customers away from a brand. It should be in a company’s best interest to have excellent customer service–and to advertise it well. This Funny Friday, we are looking at a few brands with commercials that don’t exactly give the best impression of their customer service.
Discover Card
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0h-xTGWyEM
Discover promises that its customer service representatives will “treat you like you treat you.” However, based on this commercial, it doesn’t really sound like that’s in the best interest of the customer. Personally, when I call customer service, I want to make sure they understand me completely; this commercial does not instill a whole lot of confidence in me about the competency of the customer service representatives at Discover. It’s great that Discover offers fraud protection to its customers, but fraud protection isn’t going to help protect anyone’s frog–unless, of course, the frog has credit cards.
AT&T
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCZceNSKl2s
Ok, so if I was this sales representative, I would be a little thrown off too if someone tried sign up for a phone plan in the food court. However, I would hopefully be a little bit nicer to this gentleman who is just really excited about the new family plan deal AT&T is offering. It’s usually a big turn-off for me if the sales representative isn’t nice and accommodating. Brands don’t just exist within the four walls of a store, and it matters how the people who represent them act in other contexts.
Comcast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kQX3VqgiXU
Recently, Comcast came under fire when a phone call recording of a customer service representative refusing to cancel a customer’s subscription was made public. Ironically, just a few months prior to the incident, Comcast released this commercial highlighting their commitment to customer service. Clearly, Comcast does not practice what they preach, since Consumerist just named Comcast the “winner” of the 2014 title for worst company in America.
Have you had any bad experiences with customer service? Let us know in the comments section below!
Cover Photo Source: Mellefrenchy
[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://wpmaster.sjadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Our-Space-The-San-Jose-Group.png[/author_image] [author_info]Jenny is a Junior Executive at SJG. She earned her BA in Psychology and a minor in Educational Studies in 2014 from Colgate University. Outside the office, Jenny loves to travel (usually to Disney World), bake and watch copious amounts of TLC.[/author_info] [/author]