Scott Jagodzinski is a friend and board member who couldn’t be a nicer guy. Really. He hardly ever rants. Which is why when he told me about his experience today with DirecTV, I just had to share it. It’s been cleaned up so it is now suitable for children. It did remind me of the rant [tag]Maddox[/tag] laid on Orbitz at bestsiteintheuniverse.com, an internet classic…which is most definitely not for children.
By Scott Jagodzinski
Remember the episode of [tag]Seinfeld[/tag] where George started doing the opposite of his gut and achieved amazing results? This works if you want to improve your business.
For example, let’s say you want to improve your customer service. Start with [tag]DirecTV[/tag] as your model and do the opposite.
Last week I switched from [tag]Dish[/tag] to DirecTV and scheduled the install for May 8 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. This usually means the guy shows up at 12:01 p.m. and then takes your whole afternoon up, causing you to either lose all or most of your productivity for the day. Today was different however.
At 9:30 a.m. I received a call from the installer (who really is a victim in this). He says he is jammed and won’t be there until 1:30 or so. So and hour and a half into my “window” I get the call that he is not going to make the window. He asks me if this is okay. You have to be kidding me.
I say…”no it isn’t okay. Why didn’t you call last night and give me the heads up you were overscheduled?” No answer. I ask his supervisor to call me.
His supervisor apologizes and then gives me the bs that this is the way the service business works. I asked “if you went a dentist office for an 8 a.m. appointment and the assistant came out at 9:30 and said “we’re sorry, but we should be able to get to you by 1:30″ would you be happy? Would you say “no problem?” Of course not! The problem is that this guy gets his orders the night before the installs (or so he says) and can’t do anything about it. I ask for his supervisor who has yet to call.
The bottom line: Under promise and over deliver and you’ll always be god. If they had said the install would be between 8 and 5 I wouldn’t have liked it but they would have at least set my expectations. Instead, they are getting a new client off to a bad start.
The best business lessons are often learned by looking at how f_cked up some companies operate. Watch them and do the opposite, just like George from Seinfeld…The [tag]Tom Peters[/tag] of this generation!
[tags] never piss off a guy with a podium[/tags]
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The problem I have w/this type of business is their business model. They hire sub-contractors as installers to cover their proverbial behinds.
I know this makes good sense from the liability angle, but does it inspire ownership?
Mike, it creates no accountability…the installer says talk to my supervisor, the supervisor (the owner of the installation company) says DirecTV just dumps these orders on him and says get them done on time, and DirecTV is unreachable. The satellite companies have such high churn of customers that they really don’t care about satisfaction. “Present and Repent” as the ad agencies say…just get the business anyway you can because by the time they fire us, we’ll have made our money. Sounds cynical but all to true.
Showing up when it is convenient is in fact the standard in the cable/dish industry.
My 78 year-old neighbor Bob came to my house one day and told me to hop in the his car. I hopped in and he told me he had it with the cable guy. It was the same situation has Scott’s. He found the cable installer five blocks away. It was a classic conversation.
He described how if he sent his check for the service when when it fit his schedule the company would be all over him.
He then went on to tell the guy he only wanted seven of the channels and only would pay for the channels he wanted. He used a grocery store analogy. If he went to the grocery store to get bread, peanut butter, milk and a steak and the cashier told him “you are required to get honey, cereal, pasta and BBQ sauce if you want your items” he would be upset.
In the end, Bob canceled his cable subscription, put up the rabbit ears so he could get the local news and Wheel of Fortune and started to read and do crossword puzzles.
This product seems to have a cycle of about one year—after that we consumers look for the next “latest and greatest”cable/TV.
Unfortunately the rabbit ears solution ends in ’09.
God forbid we discover books—-or conversations.
I just know Internet TV will save us all.
I got luck with my directv installer guy. He was good at the beginning and gave me his card…now I just call him, and he makes the calls into dtv and everything for me.
I guess that is what dtv must be hoping for…some amount of initiative and follow through.