LOVE, Kloudiia

Service! Service! Service!

It’s either you really, truly have it, or you claim that you have it. There are no two ways about it, and guess what, the consumer will know.

I was at LG Customer Service at Vivocity the other day (yes, within a week of using my brand new LG Renoir, I was already experiencing problems that required me to pay that place a visit!) and this conversation took place right behind me.

The lady sitting behind me waiting for her number to be called was complaining out loud to the sole person at the customer service counter. The other guys were, apparently, sales staff and couldn’t help to relieve the queue waiting time.

“Are you the only person here?” she asked the guy who was then serving me.

“Yes,” he replied.

“So you’re the only one doing the servicing and the collection?” she probed.

“Yes, only me. We take turns, my colleague is off today. Yesterday was my off day, so today I’m working.”

“What about those other guys? (referring to the sales staff who were strolling around the shop, with nothing to do) Can’t they help in collection? It’s very simple what. I don’t understand why collection also need to wait for so long. Nokia never has this problem. Their collection is very fast, only 5 minutes. Wha this LG, I can’t stand it. You know huh, I called the service centre so many times. My phone has been sent here for more than 1 month, and everytime I called, nobody answers the phone. Aiya, I shouldn’t have bought a LG phone.”

Then, hearing what she said, the girls sitting beside her also echoed in unison. One of them said: “Ya, Nokia’s collection is very fast. And their service counters have more people too. Not like here.”

Well, I can’t defend LG, really. Because they have erected two service counters, but only one person is working at any time. So that leaves one to their own imagination as to why aren’t there two service staff at work? What happened to the other one?

From the company’s standpoint, I can understand why they only deploy one service staff. Because frankly speaking, the volume of people isn’t that high to warrant two people working concurrently.

But what they failed to do is to stand in the shoes of their beloved customer and crawl on our skin for a minute. There might be times when there is practically no waiting time, but what happens when there is a throng of people coming in, as what happened that day when I was there? The waiting time just shot up to even half an hour wait for something as simple as collecting a phone.

Therefore, it would do this company a great service if they can think of how they can up their service. Can they train sales staff to do servicing work as well? Because apparently, those at the counter only take in your problems and send the phone to the people at the back who are responsible for the actual repair. How hard is this, one may ask?

While I wouldn’t want to comment about the waiting time, I do have some words to say regarding the level of service. Again, if this company puts the customer’s interest before their own, then I would have gotten my microSD card exchanged successfully.

What happened was I suspected my microSD card was corrupted. It failed to play when I inserted it into my notebook. And when I reinserted it into my phone, it actually prompted me to format the card (already formatted in the first place) and when I clicked “No” the phone hung. The only way to “unhang” it was to remove the battery. No, not even the Power On/Off switch worked.

When the service guy tested it on the PC set in the shop, the card worked.

Viola! Now, what?

There are 2 options. One is they can take my words for it and still exchange the card for me;

Or two, they will not exchange it for me and ask me to go home and test again and bring it down to change if there really is an issue with the card.

Guess which one this company chose? Yes, if they were to put my interest before them, they would have opted for one. Instead, they opted for two.

So after coming home, I tested it again to no avail. Then I inserted it into my digital camera and out came an error message that said my card was not working!

Now, I’m stuck with a corrupted card, and I have to make another trip to VivoCity or Alexander Road to make a similar complaint the second time, just to change the card.

Question to LG: Do you really think your customer would like to take advantage of you over a microSD card, at the expense of their own time and effort?

And I’m not asking them to give me another one. I’m asking them to change. They can take back my faulty card!

Really, if a company always puts their customer’s interests before their own, and give them the benefit of the doubt, I’m sure in no time they’ll create a long line of loyal fans who will really think twice, and think hard whether or not to switch to a rival brand.

Customer service cannot be neglected anymore. Not at this modern society where consumers want value. Because when you really, truly treat your customers well, they will know it. They really will. And you’ll be rewarded for it.

Now I’m just praying that there is nobody in the shop when I go there to change my card. I think that’s the least I can hope for, right?