W stands for Wonderful

Date: March 2013

Nature of encounter: Staying at the hotel

Level of satisfaction: Satisfied

People experiencing encounter: My mother, sister and myself

My mother and sister came to New York to shop for a wedding dress because my sister was getting married that summer. We arrived to the room in the hotel to find a six-pack of beer, a bottle of wine and an assortment of candy and snacks. There was a note with the gift that said “ Killer presentation today. Enjoy the city”. This clearly was not left for us. We called the front desk staff and told them that they made a mistake by placing this amenity in the room. One of the staff members came to our room immediately and he apologized as soon as we opened our door. He said that for our troubles we could keep the amenities but he would just remove the note that came with it. We were very happy. My mother and sister had just gotten off of a four-hour flight and were starving.

The specific actions that the hotel took were that they were so courteous and apologetic. They apologized profusely for the inconvenience as well as left the goodies behind for us to enjoy even though they didn’t have to. They were also prompt in response to the situation. 

I once worked for an affiliate of this chain. I believe they have similar practices in place. Most hotel when you make a reservation you fill out your preferences i.e. Allergies and any other arrangements (activities & excursions) that you would like the hotel to make. All of this information is stored in one of two systems; there is a system for room reservations and another system for any activities that are booked with the concierge before or during your stay. This information can be accessed for future visits to the property. They also store amenity requests that people have sent to guests at the hotel. This amenity was probably placed in our room by accident, possibly the employee reversed the numbers and wrote 609 instead of 906.

I think training had a lot to do with this encounter. I believe that being courteous and urgency were stressed in training sessions with staff. OSA should stress these customer service essentials to employees in their training sessions. There is no perfect product however excellent service can be provided to make the situation better.  

Hold on! Let me fix my cap!

Company: Prestige Portraits

Date: 13^th November 2015

Nature of encounter: Graduation portraits

Level of satisfaction: Very Dissatisfied

I arrived a half-hour early for my appointment which was at 10:30. I greeted the photographer who barely acknowledged my presence. She told me to “follow the instructions on the paper”. I did so, filling out the information that it needed. I stepped around the partition and sat on the stool in front of the cloth background. “Put the white paper up to your chin Hun” she barked. This paper had my name and email written on it, it was one of the papers that I filled out a few moments before. She started barking orders at me at how to pose “Lift your chin, now turn your head, drop your right shoulder”, at this point I am so uncomfortable. I lift my head to push my hair out of my face before she takes a picture and she rolls her eyes and lets out a big sigh. She proceeds to take the picture.  This happens a few more times, barking different poses at me. “Face to the right, tilt your head to the left” all the while rolling her eyes is I moved a millimeter. It then came time to put on the cap and gown. She flopped the cap on my head covering my eyebrows and throws the gown and sash over my shoulders. She throws my hair out of my face and stays “stay just like that”. I lifted my hand gently to push the cap back to free my eyebrows and she yells accompanied with an extensive eye roll “I told you to say still!” She takes two more pictures and says “Okay, you’ll receive an email and the proofs in about three weeks, bye!”

The attitude of the female photographer was absolutely ridiculous. From the beginning of the encounter to the end she was absolutely miserable. There was no reason for her to be upset. I understand her job is pretty repetitive but it’s your job! Graduation pictures are something that are very important some people. Each time you take your pictures you have to pay! Secondly, I wrote an email to the company explaining that the representative was extremely rude and I never received a response. Follow up with your customers is extremely important.

I was extremely dissatisfied by this encounter. The company should have responded to my email and offered me an opportunity to retake my pictures with another photographer. The company should be more cautious about who they hire. They have to make sure that the person is a good fit for their team. They have to make sure they are personable, positive, friendly and patient. This makes the company look very unprofessional.

We hate phone companies

Company: T-Mobile

Date: January 23, 2015

Nature of encounter: Upgrade Handset

Level of satisfaction: Dissatisfied.

I went into T-Mobile a few months after the iPhone 6 was released. I wanted to upgrade my iPhone 5s to the 6. The T-Mobile representative said that this would be no problem. I was told that they had just a few of the phones that I wanted in stock and I was lucky because they weren’t going to get anymore for a few more days. I was happy because I had already been to a few other stores and they said that they were out of stock. They brought the phone from the back and told me that I could set it up on my computer when I got home. They said that if I took the SIM that came with the phone out and just put in the SIM that I had in my existing phone that it would be fine and work. I was elated because I had shattered the screen on the phone I had about a week earlier and little by little the screen was becoming black and I couldn’t see any of my messages. I couldn’t wait to get home and transfer all my information from one phone to the other. I got home, transferred everything and it worked perfectly.

In store I didn’t pay anything and the representative said that I could pay on a monthly plan for the device. About two weeks later I got my first bill, I could see no charge on it for the phone and I thought this was weird.  I figured that maybe it took a while to sync with my bill and it may be on the following months bill. The next month there was still no change to my bill.

A few days later I decided I would call the T-Mobile customer care center just to make sure everything was in order. I was passed around to about three people and had to explain my situation every time I spoke to someone new. They couldn’t find anything that said I visited the store and had purchased this new phone. I ended up speaking with a supervisor. She asked me if I had the SIM card that I had taken out of the new phone and asked me to give her the number on the back. She found the account that they had made with that number. It turns out they had set up a completely new plan with no link to my existing plan that I already had with them. This new plan had accumulated about $250 worth of unpaid charges. The representative on the phone couldn’t justify why the representative in store had done this and said they should have combined the two accounts.  To fix this issue they would have to send me a new SIM in the mail and I would have to call in to activate the new SIM. I was extremely upset at this point but there was no other option.

The following morning I woke up to absolutely no service on my phone. I had to use my roommate’s phone to contact a customer care representative to see why my service had already been cut.  I had to explain the whole situation to them again. They seemed as if they had no idea what I was talking about initially. After a few minutes they said all I could do was wait for the SIM card to arrive in the mail.

The next afternoon I received the SIM in the mail. I immediately used my roommates phone to call them and activate the SIM. I expressed how upset I was with the service that I received. The representative apologized for the inconvenience. She said that she would reverse the charges that had accumulated and she would credit my account so that I wouldn’t have to pay my bill for the next three months.

All in all I was dissatisfied with the outcome because this is a problem that should not have occurred. What I asked the representative in the store was nothing rare for them. Any representative should have been able to complete this task seamlessly. Out of all the representatives I talked to in the store and on the phone, which was about 6 only 2 of them were able to provide a solution. The one who figured out where this mysterious account was and sent me a new SIM and the representative that gave me the credit. Everyone else I spoke to didn’t know how to help and seemingly didn’t want to, they just passed me onto the next person. Secondly, I had to explain my situation to every single person I talked to! Seemingly if you are transferring me to another representative wouldn’t you brief them on the customers problem?

The company should have been more understanding from the beginning. They also should train the staff! Implement a checklist when doing procedures such as this one to make sure it was done correctly. Though I got some money back the situation it was very stressful and took about a week to be completely resolved. Everyone that I spoke to sounded like a robot when I was expressing how upset I was. They clearly were reading from a script. Surely they track phone conversations that they’ve had with customers.

  

H&M or Die

Company: H&M

Date: July 15^th 2015

Nature of encounter: Returning apparel item

Level of satisfaction: Satisfied

I ordered a number of items from H&M’s online store because of a midsummer sale they were having. They arrived in the mail within a reasonable amount of time. I was extremely satisfied with all of the items I received except for one which was way too big. H&M doesn’t allow you to return items in the mail, even if they were ordered online. The store that was closest to me was one of their flagship stores, I was informed that they don’t accept returns of any sort at their flagship stores when I tried to return the item there a few days after receiving it. I thought I had 30 days from the date of receipt to return the item, seemingly enough time to return it . Days went past and I still hadn’t returned the item, I would continuously forget it in my apartment when I had time to visit the other store. The day I remembered happened to be the last day that I thought I could return it. I went to the store and stood online, I got to the front of the line to be told that a manager had deal with the return. The cashier asked me to step to the side and told me that a manager would be with me in a moment. Right away a manager was able to help me. He asked to see the proof of purchase and the item so that he could inspect it. He pointed out that the 30-day return policy started from the date of purchase not the date of receipt. He said that I was about four days past the return date window. I explained that this was the second store I had tried to return the item to and I said that it was silly that the flagship stores did not accept returns. He saw that I spent a lot of money on this one purchase. Before I could express further my dissatisfaction he smiled and said that he would backdate the return form and say that it was returned a few days earlier and that he forgot to file it. I was so happy; I did not want to be stuck with something that I would never wear.

I was so happy the representative took the item, even though it went against policy. I didn’t want to be stuck with something that I had no use for. I have been in the position with other retailers that refuse to take the item because it was a day past due.

H&M could see that I was a loyal customer and understood that if they didn’t accept the return that they could make me extremely upset and lose my business altogether. The manager at H&M thought of lifetime value having me as a customer. OSA needs to take this into consideration when dealing with its customers. The average student may pay $20,000 a semester, that accumulates to a substantial amount of money over the course of the four years that most students spend at the university.

Apple in The Big Apple

Company: Apple

Date: June 30^th 2015

Nature of encounter: Fix MacBook Pro speakers

Level of satisfaction: Satisfied

I was listening to music on my computer and realized that no sound was coming from one of my speakers. I thought this was weird because they had been working earlier in the day. I figured I would make an appointment at the closest Apple Store to me for that weekend when I had time to see what the problem was. It turns out that the 5^th Avenue location was the closest.  This is the biggest Apple Store in New York as well as the most congested. I arrived at the address to find a big glass cube entrance with stairs that led underground. As I descended down the glass staircase an Apple representative immediately greeted me. She asked what the purpose of my visit was. I explained to her that I had an appointment. She directed me to another gentlemen that I could check-in with for my appointment. The gentleman checked me in and directed my to the “Genius Bar” where I could sit and wait for someone to come and assist me. I was waiting about five minutes when someone came over to me and greeted me by my last time. They asked me to explain in detail the issue that I was having.  I explained the situation to him. He then asked if he could take my computer to the back to run a diagnostic test on it. A few minutes later he returned with a big smile on his face. He stated that the problem was due to some settings on my computer. He said I probably ran a program that altered the settings.

I was extremely embarrassed when he informed me about what had happened.

 I immediately apologized for wasting his time. I was at ease when he said, “This actually happens a lot, don’t worry about it, I was happy to help”. He could have easily blamed me for the problem and further embarrassed me by accusing me of wasting his time. He then showed me how to change the settings incase it happened again in the future.

Apple is known for its excellent products and customer service. They know that the customer drives their profits that increase their market share. The company definitely embraces “the customer is always right” slogan. No doubt about it, OSA should embrace this motto. It would make for less hostile conversations between OSA employees and customers.  Too many times in our research did we find students saying, “OSA said it was my fault”. This is not the way to treat a customer.