An avid fan of portals like Groupon, DailyDeal, DealLX and the like I did my monthly check of open vouchers that expire soon. I came across a voucher with the tempting headline “Exclusive spa-day including ultrasound facial, relaxing on a lava stone bed and much more at Spa & Health Vienna”, valid for another month (expiry date: 16 June 2012), which I had received as a gift. Just what I needed.
I checked my schedule for the upcoming month, selected a few possible dates and this morning called the number showing on the voucher. As soon as I mentioned the word “Groupon”, however, I was passed on to a Mrs Fröhlich, who couldn’t even wait until I had introduced myself before starting to throw a tirade of the most awful customer service imaginable at me: How she was supposed to schedule “us all” in when “we” apparently “didn’t have our lives in control”. How it “wasn’t her fault” that “we” now realised we needed to use our vouchers now. How did we imagine she was going to cope with that? “Us Groupon customers” demanded as much time for the treatment as “regular” customers who – this she needed to repeat a couple of times - “paid full price”. There were countless accusations of “us”. She made it clear that I am part of a much larger collective, a thoroughly unorganised mob. Of a group of people Spa & Health Vienna can clearly do without as customers.
This went on.
And on.
And on.
For 4:46 minutes.
By and by a few questions popped up in my head during her rant (which I was unable to ask since I didn’t get to have my say):
- If a business can not summon up the capacity, why does it offer an unlimited number of vouchers (instead of limiting it to, say, 100 vouchers like other companies do)?
- If Groupon-customers are merely perceived as second-class customers (rather than potential new customers) – why bother to cooperate with Groupon in the first place?
- When a business is expecting additional work ahead, why not see it as an opportunity (again, potential new customers) and work towards and with it?
- What about offering some sort of “goodwill solution”, especially if obvious that the demand will be much higher than the supply in the last couple of weeks the vouchers are valid for? In similar situations I have received full refund in the form of credit vouchers for the coupons I was not able to use. Not by Groupon, mind you, but by the companies the vouchers were for. Needless to say, I have stayed a loyal customer to these places since.
- Excluding today & public holidays, according to the opening hours stated on the website, there are 240 work hours left until the expiry of the voucher. The treatment takes 2 hours (according to Mrs Fröhlich). Let’s just assume that there are 2 persons working at all times. In my simple maths, this means 240 possible treatments. Not counting the Sundays which are explicitly stated to be also available “by appointment” in the opening hours on the website.
Conclusion: After having worked in customer service & quality management for over 2 years it never ceases to amaze me how unprofessionally some businesses present themselves.
Seriously, why would someone who is clearly not able to cope with a certain amount of stress choose to work in direct customer service?
{ 4 comments }
