PART 2 of the automotive insight
Gary MDS Cook
Executive and Organisational learning and consultancy for 35 years. Strategy& - from SMEs to global giants! Real and Applied...
For those interested in Customer Experience I can share part 2 of the story with you...
Well the 1 question (should be 2) feedback gained me a reply from a Loyalty Team Executive! Seems odd to have loyalty in the title - particularly when one considers the content of the reply...
My concerns with the last 2 months of the agreement have been picked up and delivered the incredulous reply: 'I am more than happy to raise this as a complaint to confirm your dissatisfaction, but we will have to close the complaint as unfortunately this figure is non-negotiable so we are unable to do anything further for you.'
So the gist of it is 'we can raise as a complaint to confirm your dissatisfaction' and then leads to 'but we will have to close the complaint'...OK - so what is the point - what is the reply aimed to do; is it ticking another box?
But of course there is more - 'Once we have raised this complain (sic), we will also send you a final resolution email that will provide you information on how you can escalate this further with the Financial Ombudsman Service. We do take all feedback very seriously as it is vital in the improvement of our products and services.'
There are so many aspects of non customer experience (and service) here that is difficult to know where to begin. The key one is not to ask for feedback if you have no intention of actually considering what it says and what the feedback may be suggesting you do. Don't raise a complaint internally if - as a company - you know that no complaint can be made (what you are basically saying is we have determined how we do things; come what may!) and don't go through the waste of time rigmarole of sending a final resolution email. Resolution of what? Basically resolution means 'we have stopped listening' (and loyalty means we hope you don't see through our veneer...).
'We do take all feedback seriously' - who are you trying to convince with this statement? Oh sorry I forgot about box ticking just for a minute. Mercedes-Benz - a long way to go...