Customer Happiness Show

Bob Furniss talks customer service on this week's podcast. He discusses the taxes for cheap postage, long wait time and other hidden taxes of cs. Furniss: There's always a line in the sand that we're willing to abide by. - Bob Furniss: There's like two Americas in customer service. He says there's two Americas with people that don't have the ability to live in the one America. The only way to get good service is to pay up for it. Furniss: How do we solve that? - There are still some basic promises you have to keep. It's uniquely american to expect service as a part of what I'm getting right. Research and compare, then secondarily, take advantages of discounts and promotions. Know what your consumer rights are. - Bob Furniss: 150 million plus people will vote for the same candidates in 2020. He says if you make a little noise by spending your money elsewhere, the economic forces will get people and the companies we deal with to do better for us. Furniss: The best way to support our show is like, subscribe, share, leave us comments.

We've been in the customer service industry for more than 65 years combined. Amas and I created this podcast to share our thoughts on how you can navigate customer service. While we don't always agree, we hope that you will be the winner based on our experiences. - Amas  says he cannot call 1800 numbers in front of young children. He says 50% of the time, he has to talk to a machine. Why don't we ditch the entire press one, press two, talking to a robot deal? Greene: Let's just get rid of it. - A survey found 78% of consumers are forced to connect with a human being after failing to resolve their needs on an automated channel. "I just want to try to explain to the consumer how we got into this mess," he says. The industry has always been inwardly focused on taking better care of customers. - Bob : Want tips? What can they do? He says press the button that chooses the option for sales. Many times more than they want to talk to their current customers.  - Bob: Sometimes one can become lost in a big company and lose sight of how one does truly help or impact a customer. Greene: What companies need to do is build better ones. What consumers should do is to demand better.

Bob: Today, we talk about what is actually going well in the world of customer service. He talks about a drive through coffee place in Memphis called Seven Brew. Greene: Every bite of the food tastes like getting a warm hug from your grandma. - If I ever go back to a small town, it's the only place I'll stay. I remember working without my book bag. By the time they finally getting around to call me, it was already in front of my door. I can't imagine doing business with anyone else. - Amazon's self service and how well they think ahead of know if I buy something and it's the wrong size or it's not what I expected. If you as a customer have good experience, and you reward that brand, that's how we drive change.

Amas and I created this podcast to share our thoughts on how you can navigate customer service. While we don't always agree, and I often have to explain to Amas why he's wrong, we hope that you will be the winner. - Bob: You make an appointment with your doctor, the doctor picks the time. Greene: If you are late or no show, I would charge you for it. He says the only thing he can come up with is some kind of fairness. Greene says make your appointments early in the morning. - The bigger the doctor organization, the more likely that they have somebody who's reading that data. If you go to someone who allows you to, either they send you a survey or you can also personally go to somewhere like Ratemd and tell the public what your experience was. I think those are fantastic tips. - Be nice when you complain, complain from a place of data. Winston Churchill quote of criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. - Bob : We used to be patients. Patients because they cared about us. And they used to let me pay them with a chicken. But we are now customers. And the sooner we embrace that, the better. It's important we call it the customer happiness year.  

Bob It's  Bob Furnace and I've got with me today amas tanuma. And we are back and with our next session. We are glad that you've joined us. Today we're going to jump into something that's a little bit different today. We're going to talk about the biggest thing going on in the world today. Amas, is that good with course, of course. Amas Taylor. Global warming? Bob No, Taylor Swift. I read an article recently entitled I asked Chat GPT the top 20 lessons I can learn from Taylor Swift. And he gave the whole detail about how he asked the question. But the author asked the question, top 20 inspiring, surprising and underrated lessons we can learn from Taylor Swift, make it viral worthy and mind blowing examples. And there were 20 of them and we could probably do 20 different sessions, but we won't do that. We'll do this one, maybe one more at some point if they end up back in the Super bowl in a week. But if you watch the documentaries about Taylor, you definitely find out that she's involved in just about every aspect of her career, right? Absolutely. Seen that and heard. Amas Absolutely. She really is. Bob And she's involved in the small stuff. Like she's created this legion of, they call them swifties. I actually identify as a swifty because I like her music. Okay. I'm not going to blame that on my wife, who most men blame it. Oh, I'm listening to Taylor Swift because my girlfriend listens to it. But her swifties are loyal to her brand. So it got me to wonder if there was something that I could learn from her that had relevance to the service and the consumer aspects of our show. So what say you, amas? Are you a swiftie? Amas Well, I did spend an exorbitant amount of money. A young lady in my life made me do it. Well, listen, I might never financially recover from it, but it was a great show. My response though, is, if you are not a swiftie, you should really look in the mirror and say, I'm the problem. It's me. Oh my gosh. Bob Okay, so it's going to be one of those shows. All right, well, the challenge has been laid. Let's see what else we can work in. So there were 20 items on the list, like I said, so I want to pick one and talk about it today. So here's the first one. Embrace change, even when it's uncomfortable. So the focus is on being different to reinvent. And I remember when Taylor Swift reinvented herself to become from a country star to a pop star. She actually debuted in 2006. And she's tried a lot of different sounds, a lot of different fashion styles and sort of personas. But I remember when she released the album, 1989, and she announced that she was leaving country music. At the time, she was one of the most widely followed, widely downloaded country stars that had ever been in the female genre. And yet she said, I'm going somewhere else because I think that other place is better. And that was a surprise, man. Talking about taking a change, making a. Amas Change in your life, that was dramatic. That was dramatic and took a lot of guts and it panned out. It could have gone the other way. Bob Yeah, it really could. And it made me think, remember the book? Now I'm going to date myself. Remember the book? Good to great. I still have it on my shelf. They looked at about 1400 companies and chose 18 companies they were going to talk about. And it reminded me that one of the key focuses of that book was that you've got to be able to change. You've got to be willing to change. And it reminded me of the story of Circuit City. For those of you who are not old enough to remember Circuit City, they were the biggest competitor of Best Buy. And you would go out to the store and you would look at the tv at Circuit City and you look at the tv at Best Buy and you would make a decision and you would bring home one or the other, depending on which price was better. And Circuit City, when the Internet happened, didn't really change. They faltered. And the biggest thing that they faltered on was because they refused to change. Meanwhile, Best Buy flourished. If you think about Best Buy today, Best Buy is as much a showroom, which you then go home and order online. The items that you were looking at as it is a store that you walk in to buy. So they made their brick and mortar. They adapted their store to become different than it had been in the past. And I just saw new numbers from February, 35% of their consumer sales is an online channel, 35%. And yet they have only one less store in Memphis, Tennessee, than they had when circuit City closed. So they have adapted. And the other big thing that they did was the Geek squad. I don't know if you've ever. Amas I remember that. Yeah, I used that. Bob Well, I can't imagine buying an appliance today without buying it at Best Buy. And it's really because of Geek squad, because I can buy an extended warranty and I'm not messing with some warranty company. I'm not messing with Samsung or General Electric. I have all my eggs in one basket. Hey, Geek squad, I have a problem. Come fix it. They were just out this week to fix something on my refrigerator. So much like much the opposite of what circuit City did. I can imagine that they wish that the road not taken looks real good. Amas Oh, here we go. All right, my turn. Look, I guess I started this one quick note item. You guys notice how Bob calls the great Taylor Swift Taylor? They're both from Tennessee. Maybe they have lunch and dinners. We might be breaking news. Bob Favorite. I hear she's currently attached. Amas Let's start some rumors. I have my ods on how long that's going to last, but I fell in love with Taylor Swift as a Persona, as a force in that documentary. And there is this moment where she is arguing with her father about speaking out about issues like domestic violence. Right. About abortion. Really, really thorny. You know, Taylor Swift is a business as much as she is a person. And so I'll tell you that the risk she took, I think the companies we choose to do business with, many of them have done the same thing I'm thinking about in my personal life. I have friends and family in my life who are fiercely loyal to Ben and Jerry's ice cream on one hand, and it's because of the causes those guys support. Bob Right? Amas They go out and they support it, and they're a for profit business. I have, in a different way, chick fil a. And there's intersection between all of who are people are fiercely supportive of chick fil A. And whatever you might think of both of these brands and their values, they live it, and it shows up in the way they serve their customers. And the most important thing, like Taylor Swift, their fans reward them for it. Their fans reward them, and their fans say, you know what? I might not agree 100% with everything you do, but I like that you take a stand. I like that you're putting your voice out to support causes and people that you don't have to. Ben and Jerry give seven and a half percent of all their profits to all kinds of causes. And again, they really live their brand, and they take huge risk. So I think if you are a customer and a consumer listening to the show, I think continuing to support the brands that we feel are authentic to us is a good thing. Bob Yeah. And I remember in the documentary that she was getting pushback from her manager, from her father. Basically, everybody in the room who were her helpers were saying, don't do this. And I remember the comment was, if I don't use my voice for what I believe in, then why do I have the voice? And so I think companies like Ben and Jerry and Chick fil A and others have done the same thing. Amas Yeah, for sure. Bob So we didn't really have a debate because we're both swifty. Amas I won if there was. Bob So you won if there was no debate. I get that. But we're obviously intrigued by Taylor. And if you look up on the Internet, you can probably find that same article. It was an interesting article about taking the concepts of who she is as an entertainer, but also the concepts of who she is as a business and applying them to today's world in business and applying them to how we live our lives as consumers. Amas Sure. I think, look, if you're listening to this and if you cannot admire this woman, whether you're a swifty or not, and all I have to say to you is you need to calm down. Bob Oh, my gosh. Do you have one more for me? Do you have one more for me? Well, on my way out, we are. Amas Here to give you advice on how to navigate service. And we say this, we've said this before, but I can't tell you enough that. Take this opportunity, and you need to take a bold stand in your customer choices. Bob Right. Amas Cancel that bad service provider. Reward the ones that are giving you good service, because it sounds like he only tolerates you, but you should be celebrated. Okay, I'm going to see myself out now. Bob I love it. I've been amused. My amusement of the day has been the amusement about her and Travis Kelsey. Amas Oh, gosh. Bob I mean, the romance and everything about it. It's on the tv every day, every moment, every show. And what really makes me laugh is the conspiracy theorists that believe that it's all part of a bigger plan by the NFL to put more eyes on the NFL and by the Democrats to get more voters to vote blue in 2024. And now, if she's capable of doing that kind of power, then that's pretty impressive. But the story is over. If the story is over, why am I still writing pages? Amas Okay, well, this is. Bob Enough. It hopefully will come out as well in our voice as it did in our heads when we were planning this. I doubt that we may just delete the whole show and move on. So if you've been listening to us today, we appreciate you being here. We hope that you enjoyed this silly episode. Today we started this podcast with the idea that he and I were going, that Amas and I were going to have fun doing it. And over the last three years, we've had more fun in this 30, 45 minutes time frame than any other time of my week. So thank you, Amas, for that. And thank you for listening. And follow us and leave us. Well, maybe you don't want to leave a comment about this show, but leave positive comments, and we look forward to seeing you again in a week.  

Bob and Amas Amas and I created this podcast to share our thoughts on how you can navigate customer service. Based on our experiences working from the. Inside out, I Bob, it is good to see you. We usually record on Fridays. Spirit Airlines: The Customer Service Story Bob .: Most spirit airline customers know the horror show that can be flying this airline. Three out of four of those same. customers, after a bad experience, continue to fly on spirit airlines. He says this has more to do with pricing and availability versus service not mattering. Spirit Menu: Good Service vs. Bad Service Bob .: From a consumer perspective, service matters. He says people weigh the difference between bad service and good service. .: Consumers are not asking themselves that questions when they make decisions. Spirit Air: Consumer Choice Bob .: You got to make sure you're making a conscious decision on what your line is. He believes that the NPS scores for Spirit Air for the casual customer is probably bad. But he believes that there are loyal spirit airline customers who go. The Lost Child If you're going to cheap out on service, know what your pain tolerance is. So the line tolerate anything all the way up to you lost my twelve. Year old, do not lose my child. Anything before that. Go to town. Customer Service is More Important Than Price Bob .: Customer service guru says 58% of customers say customer service is more important than price. He says as consumers, we have to expect we're going to pay more for better service. .: Make sure your words and. your actions are aligned because it sends the  

Amas You decided to come take the beating in person today. Bob I did. It's the first time I've been in a room with you on a podcast, so I have left all the knives at home. Amas Awesome. Let's jump into it, because I do have a story to share with our audience today. So I'm at DFW airport. You go use the restroom. And ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't seen this on your way out, there's a little button thing that says, I've seen them press green for good, right, red for bad, right. They want my feedback. I don't know if the feedback is about my number one or number two or I'm assuming it's a cleanliness. Bob Yeah, we're going to edit that out. Amas It's the cleanliness of the bathroom. And no, we're not. Right. But number one, gross. But number two, it's occurred to me we have overdone the survey thing. Every single company wants my damn opinion to teach them how to treat me better. And I think we've gotten to a point, Bob, where we all should just boycott this whole survey business and just stop responding because it's gone too far. Bob Well, I don't respond to the one in the bathroom because I've seen the number of men who come in and don't wash their hands. So I'm not going to touch something right after I wash my hands. I still use a towel when I open the door for that same very reason. So I'm not going to do that one. But I think you've got that same problem you have often, which is you want to end everything when one thing doesn't go right. So I think there's opportunities for surveys to go really well. In fact, I'll tell you about a story that I have. I've been in customer service for 40 years, and I can count on my hand, on my one hand, the number of times that somebody has ever followed up to a bad survey. So what's interesting about that, if you look at it, part of our podcast focus is to help the consumer know what's going on behind the closed doors of customer service and what's going on behind the closed doors is not a whole lot with surveys. When surveys, customer sat surveys in my contact center were tied to my bonus, I would always pull them up because I wanted to know what my bonus was going to be that month. Now, if it was really bad information, then I might read through them and pay attention to them. If it was really good information, I still might read them, but I didn't do anything with them. But I had an experience recently where I was working with a local drug company, local pharmacy, and it was a bad experience and I trashed them. I gave them ones and twos in a scale of one to ten. Amas Right. Bob I could not have been more confused when someone called me from the company and said, I'm calling to talk to you about your service because you turned in a survey that said that we didn't do very well. You had some specific things and we would like to learn from you how to be better. That's impressive. That is, if you got those kind of responses, would you give up on. Amas No, no, I think, look, I am, of course, right. But let's indulge Bob for a second. So let's say there's some good that can come out of surveys. I think the issue you just brought up, this issue of follow up, is my biggest beef with it. The DFW, airport people, if you're listening, you do not need me to tell you whether your bathroom is clean or not. Bob Just clean the bathroom. Just clean the bathroom and keep it clean. Amas All that's happening is so that you can put yourself in the airport magazine. I'm assuming that's a thing. As the cleanest, you will aggregate all the numbers and say 90% of, but only you benefit from that. Me, the consumer, and everyone else listening. Our experience is not improved by taking the survey. So that's really the beef with it. So let's just say we're not going to all stop listening to surveys because there is half of the audience who listens to this guy and half of the audience who are right and listen to me. What advice do you give to people on how to fill service? Do they just fill all of them out? Are we all working for these companies now? Bob Well, I think it depends on what your experience was. And there's also a reality in the industry of service that customers have a higher propensity to fill out a survey that is negative than they do positive. Amas Correct. Bob So if I get a bad score, I will argue till the end of day that I'm only getting bad scores. People who get good service don't fill out surveys. So maybe I'm doing it for that. Maybe I'm an old call center guy that doesn't have any more sense than to take my 5 minutes of my life and fill out a survey about what I experienced. But how do you fill them out? You fill them out honestly. And while not everyone reads the comments, that's where the money is. If you are a company that cares, if you are a company that cares about whether or not you're giving good service, one of the first things we used to do as consultants when we were doing customer experience work is to say, can you give me all of the data from the last six months of your customer SAT surveys? And we would analyze it and put it into categories and bring it back to the client. And it was always surprising that the client would go, I had no idea that we were that bad. And you would go, well, I got this data from stuff that's on your bookshelf. Right. So I think that in the consumer world, what we're trying to do is we're trying to help that company be better. And if you look at it from that perspective, then you're doing the right thing. Amas Yeah. I would also add, at least this is my deal. When you send me a survey, company is there, if there is a page two, I'm already gone. Bob Yeah, well, I got one the other day that was 16 pages long and there were like 35 questions. And I think I held on being me. That fills them out. I think I held on to about page nine, eight, nine, and I went, now I'm out. Amas I would also say the last tip I would give our audience is the best survey you can fill is not show back up to that company. Right. Because that is the hardest data. Right. So at the end of the day, what we're here to teach you is here's what goes on. If a company is treating you poorly and you have written them survey after survey and nothing's changing, the best survey is just stop doing business. Bob Absolutely. Amas If you can. So, Bob, we like to leave our audience with something fun or what you've learned or quotes. What's yours this week? Bob Yeah, I read one, I was looking at quotes about customer service. I read one from Bill Gates that I love. I'm not sure that Bill Gates is correctly necessarily connected to his customer the way he was when he made this statement. But he said, your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. And I believe that to be true. I believe that whenever at my contact center when I had a specialized group that handled churn and customers who were saying they were going to leave our cell phone company. I was doing customer service for a mobile cell organization. That information about why they were leaving was dispersed throughout the organization and that information is invaluable to a company if they listen. And so let's do this. If you're out there listening and you're a consumer and you happen to work at a company, you should go ask about your surveys and what's going on with them. If you're just a regular consumer and you don't work for a company, I think we said a couple of weeks ago maybe you could do surveys on your kids and give them surveys about how clean their room is and it would make you feel better about whether or not they were listening or not. Amas Exactly. Mine is going to be a Mark Twain quote, a twist on it. There are lies. There are damn lies and then there are surveys. Bob Yeah, you twisted that one pretty bad. You twisted that one pretty bad. Amas But I do know, Bob, the thing you said about the gold is in the comments is you can ask the questions. Companies will ask the questions in creative ways to help drive a score and a number. And the best story I have on this is BlackBerry was getting high net promoter score. This is the customer CSAT scores that they got and everything was going great and they went out of business the next year. So it's one of those things where if companies were more apt to look at the text and the information you actually fill out, I'll fill more surveys out. Like, Bob, my hesitancy is because we know what goes on behind the scenes. Bob Well, the customer's perception is the reality and if you don't know that their perception is bad then you're missing the boat. Amas Bob, it's been awesome seeing you in person. Absolutely beating up on you again today. So for those of you out there, please like ask us questions on what you want us to debate next. If you're having any problems with customer service, shoot us those questions. Bob We're here. I think I'll look at the camera and say I think that's really important. Like if you're enjoying the banter we have take the chance to send something into us. You can message us on Instagram, you can message us on Spotify, on TikTok for that matter, and we'll check them and we'll put together a show about it. Amas Absolutely. Give me more questions to beat this guy up on. All right, we'll talk to you all next week.  

Bob We've been in the customer service industry for more than 65 years combined. Amas and I created this podcast to share our thoughts on how you can navigate customer service. And while we don't always agree, and I often have to explain to Amas why he's wrong, we hope that you will be the winner based on our experiences working from the inside out. Amas Thank Bob. Amas It is good to see you. I look forward to kicking your ass again. Amas So today, I've got one for you. So, the government is now trying to. Amas Legislate good customer service into the law. Amas There is a new lawsuit by the. Amas New York attorney general, my home state. Amas They are suing Sirius XM not for fraud, but for being bad at customer service. The government alleges that SiriusXM puts customers through long wait times, jumps through hoops. Amas When they want to perform routine customer service. Things in this case, cancellation of their service. Amas And I hope you will be on. Amas The right side of this issue, Bob. But you don't have a good track record, I think. Amas Amen. We need the government, the supreme Court. Amas To fix customer service for us. What say you, Bob? Amas Surely you agree with me on this one. Bob No, I can't agree, and I can tell you why. But before I tell you why you're wrong, let me share my story. Okay. Amas I've experienced almost the very same thing. Bob That the lawsuit represents. Okay. I'm a longtime serious XM user, and I've called in to try to cancel before, and I've gotten the same run around, the same transferred back should be for this. Amas Yeah, my outcome is a little different. Bob So let's talk about the theory of what you're saying. You want the courts and the government to decide. I've got some questions for you, and I think you'll tie yourself into a knot to the point that you change sides. Amas Is that even possible? Of course it is. What's the minimum standard going to be? Well, I mean, people ask you all. Amas The time, what's the best practice, the standard for slas and service level? 30 seconds and 80. I mean, we could do this. There's plenty of smart consultants to come up with the Standard. Amas What else you got? Bob Okay, now you're talking about standards, about how fast I get answered. Amas Exactly. Bob What about the concept of how are we going to define good service? Is good service when I get what I want as a customer or when the company gets what it has to have in order to be successful? I think I remember already this year you've come down on the side of the company and their ability to make money. So who's going to make that decision? Are we going to go to the Supreme Court every time there's a need? Because that's a lot of work, man. There's a lot of agents we don't. Amas I do want to remind you that the only reason you and I had. Amas Decades a career in contact centers is because of the Supreme Court. Amas You are deriding so well. In 1968, right, the Ford Motor company. Amas Was giving customers the runaround. Amas And the government, the Supreme Court mandated that they created a toll free 1800 number to allow consumers to call in. And a few things later, we had. Amas The contacts and we have today. You cannot let the free market just decide this. Amas You need a little governmental push. Amas I don't want every customer service issue going to the Supreme Court. Amas But I would like a ruling that. Amas Says I will never have to suffer through another self checkout at Walmart. I would like a ruling that says. Amas You'Re not going to keep me waiting. Amas For hours and hours. Amas I need something. By the way, the Biden administration is putting together. Amas There's actually a law right now, or. Amas Not law, a bill that I think is the Taylor Swift concert thing that. Amas Again tells companies to stop gouging us with the fees and all that. I am a free market guy, Bob, as you know, I am no socialist, but I think the free market can use a little bit of. And if they want to get involved. Amas In customer service, I say come on. Amas Down because these guys are not going to do it themselves. Amas And you are exhibit a. Amas You are getting screwed by Sirius XM, aren't you? You are. You want. Amas Hold on. Bob But if I'm a good consumer, then I'm not getting screwed by Sirius because let me tell you the end of the story, the rest of the story. Amas Okay. Bob When I called into Sirius, they transferred me around. And the reason why I called is because they sent me a precursory email and a letter telling me they were raising my rates by, I think it was around 200% to 250%. Amas Right? Bob So just a matter of fact letter. So I called up and said, yeah. Amas I don't want to keep it. Bob And so they transferred me over to the cancellations department and the person said. Amas What would it take? Bob After negotiating with me for a good eight to ten minutes of back and forth, the person said, what would it. Amas Take to keep you? Bob And I said, I want the same. Amas Service for the same price and I will stay a customer. Bob That's all I want. I'm not paying anymore. Amas He said, okay, let me set that. Bob Up for you so for five or six years now, maybe longer. Amas My time is not rational post Covid, but. Bob It'S a dance we do. Amas They send me a letter. Bob They tell me they're going to increase my rates by 200%. I pick up the phone, I talk to them, I tell them I'm going to leave if they don't give me the same service for the same price. They say, okay, Mr. Furnace will do that. And I go about my merry way with the same price that I was. Amas Paying six years ago. Amas So you like dance? Bob I don't like the dance, but I like the results of the dance. So my argument would be, I don't know that the government's going to fix that ability because the government's going to have to take into account, well, the company has to have an increase in. Amas Rates on an annual basis. And that would make sense to me. Bob If I'm the government and I'm listening to the company, I'm listening to the customer, we're going to let you raise rates 3% annually. Amas I've done better than that. Bob I'm just not quite where you are that the government should be involved in the decision. I think we as consumers should be involved in the decision by where we buy, what kind of service we use, and how we react to the company. And there's very few monopolies left that I can't go somewhere else and get a better. Amas Will. I will admit occasionally, Bob does make some points here and there. Amas I'll admit that the government is not. Amas My first choice to fix anything. Amas That being said, I think a little bit of consumer bill of rights, something will be a good floor. Amas But we like to leave people with tips. Amas And I think, Bob, the point you. Amas Made about, at the end of the day, you, the consumer, you have power, you have autonomy. You can choose to shop elsewhere. Amas And I do think that if the government passes some laws and they have. Amas There'S some consumer bill of rights, if you're dealing with the customer, there are consumer protection agencies. If you feel like you're really being had, it's not for every customer service issues. There are consumer protection agencies that can help you as well. So that would be a tip to help some of you on here. So I've beaten Bob enough here. Bob, what do you want to leave people with this week? Or quote, what lesson? Amas What do you have for us? Bob Well, I'll just remind you that when I call serious, I am the nicest customer that that person has talked to all day. I'm dripping with honey. Amas There you go. I'm nice on this podcast. Amas You're not. Bob So my quote for the day was from the 14th Dalai Lama, who I haven't quoted before as far as I know in my life. Amas Wow. Bob It's to be kind whenever possible, and it's always possible. So no matter how frustrated you are with the company, you're as a consumer going to get more if you are. Amas Specific about what you want. And nice to the agent. Bob Nobody wants to deal with an unhappy customer any more than the agent who's dealing with you when you're an unhappy customer. Amas That is a beautiful quote. Amas Mine is win or lose, do it fairly. This is by Nokney, and to me. Amas It'S again, why this lawsuit and all. Amas Of that was interesting to us is. Amas We'Re looking for balance, right? Amas The company has to make money. We the consumers, they need to respect our time. And I think that hopefully you learned some tips today on how you can bring some fairness in your customer service dealings. Bob So, not to give you a hard time about your quote, but you said it was by Nokney, and I'm just wondering if that's like a Ben and Jennifer Benifer thing, because I think the quote's by Newt Rockney. So just wanted to call out one more time how you sometimes don't make sense. Amas Apologies to the great football player. It's because he played for Notre Dame. Amas He played for Notre Dame. Amas So. Amas We'Ll see you all next time. Thank you.  

We've been in the customer service industry for more than 65 years combined. Amas and I created this podcast to share our thoughts on how you can navigate customer service. While we don't always agree, we hope that you will be the winner. - We've become a country that just judges everyone around them.  Even customers get rated. He says ratings as a customer can affect my service. Amas says he's okay with the rating, but he wants a path to fix it. We are being rated as customers in ways that never happened before. Bob would like some kind of appeal process. - So please give me good ratings. Better yet, what if I could give a rating to my spouse? 

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Social Media may be the best place to get customer service. You often get faster and more efficient service comparatively. So let's give you some inside look at that. They're the best agents, right? Is that what you had in your contact center? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Because it's a very high profile channel, and most of the companies we all deal with put the best of the brightest there because they don't want to be embarrassed. That is absolutely right. But we definitely agree that social media works, right? I've gotten the quickest response, the best response through social media and through Twitter in comparison to any other escalation point that I've tried to go through. Well, listen, this is where you're wrong. You are telling me that we're eating at this customer service. Let's take a restaurant and you just told me the best cuts of meat are in the back room somewhere. But I should start with the cheap cuts first. And somehow, if that doesn't fill me. No, I want give me those best and the brightest right away. And Mr. Company, you are multi gazillion dollar company and I'm picking on the larger ones now. Well, I don't care. Make all of your people, like, give the day, you give all of your other people the same training or whatever you people do to make an authority. It's usually not training. It's authority that you give everyone else. I'll start using that channel. And you know what? If they don't respond on Twitter, I will go find them on Facebook. I will go to Instagram, I will stalk you to the ends of the earth. I will, too. But I'm going to go through a normal channel first. I'll go to chat before I go to Twitter. I'll go to phone call before I go to Twitter. I use it as an escalation point. But unlike most weeks, you have a point of, why would I not go around that first step? I will say that you pay more for the more expensive cuts in the back. That is true. Right. If it's a better channel. And what you're going to find is they're going to turn you around and put you back into the customer service queue. A lot of times, anyway, I'd like to use it as an escalation. They did call me. Yeah, that's a good place to leave it. I think you're right that if everyone follows my advice. I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. If we rewind that just a little bit and you say that one more time. Well, you better listen carefully. It won't happen again. But I would say, I think you're right on this one small issue, that if everyone follows my advice, eventually the cost of everything is going to go up because someone's got to pay for this expensive cuts of meat. But that said, I do hope for those of you listening, you became a smarter customer today. And you have all these channels available to you. You can go the Bob way or you can go the Amas way, but now you have the Bob. Yeah. And the key to that Amas is that that is a place where you will get will. You and I both know that. And so if you're out there in radio land and you're not using social media to get to what you need, you should start doing that. That's a great advice. I'm surprised how few people use the channel. What are we going to leave folks with today? I'll start. Bob, the great Charlie Munger died at 99 years old this past week.

Bob,&nbsp;it&nbsp;is&nbsp;good&nbsp;to&nbsp;see&nbsp;you.&nbsp;So,&nbsp;I&nbsp;was&nbsp;on&nbsp;a&nbsp;flight&nbsp;recently&nbsp;from&nbsp;San&nbsp;Francisco,&nbsp;and&nbsp;as&nbsp;it&nbsp;always&nbsp;happens,&nbsp;surprise,&nbsp;surprise,&nbsp;the&nbsp;flight&nbsp;was&nbsp;late,&nbsp;but&nbsp;the&nbsp;lady&nbsp;at&nbsp;the&nbsp;front&nbsp;desk&nbsp;was&nbsp;telling&nbsp;everyone&nbsp;that,&nbsp;hey,&nbsp;listen,&nbsp;guys,&nbsp;we&nbsp;know&nbsp;your&nbsp;flight,&nbsp;it's&nbsp;late,&nbsp;but&nbsp;we're&nbsp;going&nbsp;to&nbsp;be&nbsp;boarding&nbsp;in,&nbsp;in&nbsp;30&nbsp;minutes.&nbsp;While&nbsp;she&nbsp;was&nbsp;saying&nbsp;that,&nbsp;I&nbsp;was&nbsp;online&nbsp;and&nbsp;I&nbsp;already&nbsp;knew&nbsp;that&nbsp;the&nbsp;flight&nbsp;was&nbsp;canceled. So&nbsp;before&nbsp;most&nbsp;people&nbsp;who&nbsp;were&nbsp;sitting&nbsp;there&nbsp;could&nbsp;get&nbsp;in&nbsp;line&nbsp;and&nbsp;talk&nbsp;to&nbsp;this&nbsp;lady,&nbsp;I&nbsp;was&nbsp;already&nbsp;rescheduling&nbsp;my&nbsp;flight.&nbsp;And&nbsp;what&nbsp;occurred&nbsp;to&nbsp;me&nbsp;is&nbsp;this&nbsp;was&nbsp;one&nbsp;of&nbsp;those&nbsp;instances&nbsp;where&nbsp;all&nbsp;the&nbsp;people&nbsp;at&nbsp;that&nbsp;gate&nbsp;who&nbsp;chose&nbsp;the&nbsp;human&nbsp;option,&nbsp;they&nbsp;waited&nbsp;in&nbsp;line.&nbsp;The&nbsp;service&nbsp;representative,&nbsp;she&nbsp;was&nbsp;rude,&nbsp;and&nbsp;I&nbsp;interacted&nbsp;with&nbsp;a&nbsp;machine,&nbsp;if&nbsp;you&nbsp;will,&nbsp;with&nbsp;automation,&nbsp;and&nbsp;my&nbsp;automated&nbsp;service&nbsp;had&nbsp;bedside&nbsp;manners,&nbsp;and&nbsp;I&nbsp;got&nbsp;better&nbsp;service. So&nbsp;I'm&nbsp;going&nbsp;to&nbsp;say&nbsp;something&nbsp;that&nbsp;I&nbsp;doubt&nbsp;many&nbsp;customers&nbsp;who&nbsp;are&nbsp;listening&nbsp;to&nbsp;us&nbsp;have&nbsp;said&nbsp;recently.&nbsp;Is&nbsp;it&nbsp;possible&nbsp;that&nbsp;the&nbsp;bots&nbsp;are&nbsp;better&nbsp;than&nbsp;the&nbsp;humans,&nbsp;at&nbsp;least&nbsp;when&nbsp;it&nbsp;comes&nbsp;to&nbsp;airline&nbsp;travel?&nbsp;I&nbsp;think&nbsp;it's&nbsp;possible.&nbsp;I'm&nbsp;not&nbsp;going&nbsp;to&nbsp;debate&nbsp;whether&nbsp;the&nbsp;bot&nbsp;is&nbsp;better&nbsp;than&nbsp;the&nbsp;person,&nbsp;other&nbsp;than&nbsp;to&nbsp;say&nbsp;that&nbsp;are&nbsp;better&nbsp;than&nbsp;waiting&nbsp;in&nbsp;line&nbsp;at&nbsp;the&nbsp;counter. But&nbsp;I&nbsp;am&nbsp;going&nbsp;to&nbsp;say,&nbsp;I&nbsp;think&nbsp;our&nbsp;tip&nbsp;to&nbsp;our&nbsp;listeners&nbsp;today&nbsp;is&nbsp;you&nbsp;should&nbsp;have&nbsp;the&nbsp;app&nbsp;on&nbsp;your&nbsp;phone,&nbsp;because&nbsp;I&nbsp;believe&nbsp;that&nbsp;is&nbsp;the&nbsp;fastest&nbsp;interaction&nbsp;that&nbsp;you&nbsp;can&nbsp;possibly&nbsp;have&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;airlines&nbsp;is&nbsp;what&nbsp;you're&nbsp;able&nbsp;to&nbsp;do&nbsp;on&nbsp;your&nbsp;phone.&nbsp;<

Bob: I think not only is tipping gone too far, I think we should just end the whole tipping thing completely. Europe doesn't have tipping anymore. Almost every part of the world is eliminated, and we have held onto it. - Bob: What offends him most about tipping is the disparity of service and pay. He says what correlates to good tips are looks. Bob: Tipping has its place in American culture, but it would require a change in the law to make a difference. - I took Bob to the woodshed and I won this debate. I think we need to add something at the bottom of our podcast where people can vote. For More Info, visit " amastalks.com " &nbsp; &nbsp; For Get to know BOB, " https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurniss/ " For Get to know Amas http://linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/

Amas Bob, it is good to see you. I've got some beef that I want to share with you. You know, I hate going to grocery stores, but I got out of my house. I put on pants. I went to Walmart. I did. I went to Walmart, right? I go to Walmart, hate going to. Bob Any grocery store, but I go, I. Amas Pick up my items. I've got about 20 or so items. I get to the self checkout line. There is a friggin line for self checkout, right? It's bad enough that they handed me a ladder to climb up into the warehouse to get my own stuff off of the aisles. Here I am again. Bob I'm waiting. Amas Eventually, I get to my turn. And what happens when I'm self checking out? The thin goes red. Apparently I'm stealing something. I've got wait. There is a wait for somebody to come fix the thin. And that happened twice. I guess I was buying wine or something. Anyway, the whole thin was a friggin disaster. So my view on this, Bob, I would love to hear where you are. I think this social contract has been broken with self checkout. What was promised was that I would get faster service. It'll save the money, and maybe the prices will go down a little bit, but I will get faster service. Now, it is slow, and I am an unpaid employee at. So, Bob, are you on the side of the people, or are you with the big grocery stores here? What say you on this topic of self checkout? Bob Well, I think it's in a state. Bob Of flux of where we're trying to get to. But I've had similar experiences. My kroger, which is by far the largest store in the Memphis market, is now about 80% self checkout. Amas Okay. Bob Like you, but you have to stand. Bob In line, either one. Bob And so it's not faster, it's slower. And now there's one person handling nine checkouts where it started out with one person handling six checkouts, right? Bob So everything about it has gotten crazy. Bob But let me tell you that maybe you're shopping at the wrong place. Amas Oh, go on. Bob Because let me tell you about my experience. So I walk into Sam's with my wife, and my wife says, she pulls out her phone, and she goes, you're not going to believe what I'm about to show you. And I said, what are you talking about? She goes, watch this. So she pulls out her phone, she touches her app, and as we're pulling things off the shelf, she's finding this barcode and scanning them. Not new. Have done that before. At Kroger have done that before. Other places not new, that you would scan your own stuff. So we walk through the store, we scan stuff. We climb up on the ladders to get the stuff on the top. We do the same kind of thing you do. We go back to the wine department. We go through the store. We have a whole cart full of stuff, and we buy a lot of things in bulk. Bob So she goes, now watch this. SPEAKER C You see that sign that says, if. Bob You'Re a scan and walking, walk here. And we walked under a sign, okay? And my app ringed, you have been checked out. SPEAKER C $122. Here's your receipt. Bob And we just kept walking. Bob I didn't talk to anyone. I didn't scan at a scanner. I didn't have anybody come up and tell me anything was wrong. My entire experience was scan as I go. Bob Took me a couple of seconds to find the barcode. Bob But walking out without standing in a. Bob Line, without talking to a person, without. Bob Getting out my credit card, all of that was the perfect experience. Bob Now, I still had to stand in line so they could mark my receipt, which I don't quite understand, which is a whole nother show. Why do we mark receipts? Bob But the checkout environment was spot on. Bob And if that's the future of self. Bob Checkout, I'm all in. Amas And, Bob, you know, I'm going to have to reluctantly agree with you. I think that you're right in that not all self checkout. Maybe it's me trying to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Right? Not all self checkout is created equally, right? That technology you just mentioned, there's all this autonomous retail. So maybe what's the solution then? How do I get Walmart to go across the street? Aren't you guys in the same company? Go to the other department on the 13th floor and say, hey, guys, can we get the thin you guys have over there and bring it to, like, is it that simple? It's like, as know, we make this show for our audience that you just have to be discerning and make some choices. Bob First of all, I think it's coming. I don't know why they chose Sam's versus Walmart. Probably because they already know who I am at Sam's. They have my picture, they have my sign up, they have my credit card on. Like, it was an easy, you know, we've said many times in our shows. Bob Amas customers give company. Bob As a customer, as a consumer, I. Bob Will give you all the data you ask for if you will make my life. So I'll sign up at Walmart. Bob If I can scan and walk, I'll sign up and give you my credit card. Bob I'll do all those things, but I. Bob Think we're just behind. And the frustrating part for me is. Bob That Kroger just doubled their self checkout. Bob In the old style self checkout, scan your item, wait on the person to come over and approve your alcohol. All of the nightmares that you're talking. Bob About, but I don't know, you did. Bob Some stuff at AWS where you can scan and go or not even scan, just go walk out. Bob At a stadium. Bob And having stood in line for, I don't know, 35 minutes and missed 20 minutes of the game, at the last time I went to a game, in fact, it was you and I in Alabama, Tennessee, just trying to get a Diet Coke and some peanuts. That's broken, right? Bob That's broken. Amas Yeah. I think it's a good place to leave it. I mean, it's one of those things where. Bob Look, as consumers, I think be on. Amas The lookout for people and organizations who are adopting new technology that meets their social contract. At the end of the day, I agree to be an employee at Walmart or Sam's as long as you pay me and giving me back my time. But I don't want to be here on the clock not getting paid and you're taking more and more of my time. I will do what you just said, which is go in, grab the thin. At least I know that in exchange for my working here unpaid, I got the gift of time back, and that's definitely worth something. Bob Well, I definitely think you nailed it. But now the question is, I'm driving down the road. I have memberships at both Costco and. Bob Walmart, which 01:00 a.m.. Bob I going to choose? Am I going to choose Costco where. SPEAKER C I still have to stand in line. Bob Where I still have to scan? Or am I going to choose Sam's, where it's walk and go? I got a feeling that competition is. Bob Going to push these stores. Bob Once somebody has that experience, the competition will push us. Bob But as consumers, we have a choice, right? Bob And that's how you make your voice. Bob Known, is by choosing the better experience. We'll leave it there. Amas We'll see you all next time. Him. Hope you enjoyed the show. Please like and share this with your friends. Bob Yeah, our channel. Get to Know Amas: http://linkedin.com/in/amastenumah/ For Get to know BOB, " https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurniss/&nbsp; &nbsp;

Bob : I have no idea why we keep making turkey the star of the show of Thanksgiving. He says turkey is the worst part of that meal. Bob: What we're looking for is a moist turkey. Let's give up this nonsense.&nbsp; Bob&nbsp; is thankful for family and friends like you. He loves the tradition of friends giving. Why wasn't the turkey hungry on thanksgiving? It didn't want to eat itself. Happy thanksgiving to you and to everyone. &nbsp; &nbsp; For Get to know BOB, " https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobfurniss/ "