Case Study
John Smith put down the phone. He has spent the last 45 minutes speaking to many people in the customer service department of FinanceCo Ltd. The problem had started many months earlier when John had taken out a subscription to a gardening magazine charged to his FinanceCo platinum credit card. FinanceCo had offered a 10 per cent discount for the first three months’ subscription if customers signed up for at least six months. The amount would be added to customers’ credit card accounts each month.
The first magazine arrived promptly, the second was a week late, and the third failed to arrive. John Smith decided to cancel his subscription and rang FinanceCo to do this. A helpful-sounding customer service agent agreed which he had received poor service and agreed to end the subscription and refund the last months’ payment. John was more than content with this, feeling that his complaint had been dealt with. The next month’s statement, however, didn’t show the refund and, worse still, a further months’ subscription had been put on to his account.
As he had been rather busy, John did not have chance to query this entry till another month had gone by, with a further subscription added, plus interest on subscriptions unpaid. Further calls to the customer service department meant conversations with customer service agents who were friendly, made promises, but seemed not capable to keep them.
Eventually, after yet another conversation with a sympathetic customer service agent who seemed unable to resolve the issue, John demanded to talk to customer services manager. After a lengthy phone call (which John paid for), the matter was finally resolved.
You are required to answer following questions:
Question1. Measure the John Smith’s service experience and service outcome with FinanceCo Ltd.
Question2. Critically explain the service recovery strategies that FinanceCo could have used to recover this failed service.
Question3. Some customers never complain. Critically illustrate this statement.