Jan 3 2010
Posted By Danny in Insights
16

Misleading Customer Service Kills Your BusinessSometimes, as much as you’re a fan of a brand, they’re so far off the ball that they’re not doing themselves any favours. Sony Canada seems one such company.

I bought a Sony VAIO laptop for my wife’s birthday on December 8. A little after that, the network connection for wireless Internet went down. I thought it might be something to do with the router, so I checked that out.

After all, a company like Sony wouldn’t have products that died within a couple of weeks, would they?

But my media centre works fine wirelessly, as does my Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360. So, not the router.

Then I remembered we had a power surge a couple of weeks back, and thought that might have something to do with it. So, I thought I’d jump online and chat with a Sony Canada tech support representative. Unfortunately, Sony Canada had other ideas.

Instead of allowing its customers to chat live with an online customer service or tech support agent (like most other large tech businesses today), Sony Canada has the option of either email support or telephone support. So, I’m screwed unless I want to hang on a “You’re call is important to us” line for whatever amount of time.

Except I’m not.

Step in Ryan Meray. He’d seen me tweet about my issues, DM’d me and asked if I needed help, and to send my Gmail Chat details. Even though it’s a Saturday night. Even though he has plans himself.

Ryan must have spent a good 40 minutes with me, going through every single possibility as to what the issue could be. He was patient; knowledgeable; helpful and really wanted to resolve the issue.

All the things Sony Canada should want to be, in fact. Except they’re not.

Instead, they make customers go through the rigmarole of phone trees, or emails that may or may not be answered within a specific time-frame. They have a crappy FAQ system on their website that simply tells you what you already know. And they don’t have even basic online live support.

This is a multi-billion dollar corporation. This is a company that prides itself on innovation. This is a company that aggressively looks for ways to stay ahead of its competitors. Sadly, they seem to have forgotten about one of the key parts of any business – the customers. And as we leave behind a year that saw huge corporations fall because of a lack of customer trust and satisfaction, it’s a dangerous game to play.

No company is too big to fail. No company can afford to short change its customers. Otherwise, people like Ryan Meray will step in and take your customers’ business away from you by offering the service you should have (because I sure as heck know what tech company will be on my mind in the future).

You’re treating your customers right. Right?

  • Update Sunday January 3 – I received an email from Candice Hayman of Sony Canada’s PR team, asking what the issue was. She then came back and advised that the VP of Service has said that Sony Canada is planning to implement email chat for VAIO. Additionally, there is online chat if you go here. However, this is for Sony U.S. and is for product information problems only. Which still leaves me in the lurch.

Creative Commons License photo credit: libraryman

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