Wedding Business Solutions

Is it just me, or is customer service getting worse?

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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Have you ever wondered why customer service feels more frustrating lately? Are chatbots making things easier or harder for your clients? What would happen if you walked in your customers' shoes and really asked: “Would I want to be treated this way?” In this episode, I share personal stories of surprising fees, AI mishaps, and inconsistent policies, all with the goal to help you spot the friction points in your business and turn them into opportunities to stand out.

Listen to this new 10-minute episode for simple changes you can make today to reduce customer friction, improve service, and create happier clients.

If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com 

Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com  

View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/


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I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

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Is it just me or is customer service getting worse? Listen to this episode. See where I'm going with this one.

Hi, it's Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. I don't know, is it just me or is customer service getting worse? I mean, some of it's AI and some of it's just—I don't know what it is. Let me give you some examples here, and tell me if you can relate to some of these or maybe I can help you prevent falling into one of them.

I went to Ireland recently. It was my 12th time speaking there for Weddings Online. Love going there, love the country and the people. Rented a car. My wife won’t drive there because wrong side of the road, wrong side of the car, and she’s just not doing that. When we got to the airport and picked up the car, they asked if I wanted the supplemental insurance, and I said no, because I specifically have credit cards that cover that, and I have an annual travel policy that covers it as well.

If you’re not familiar with this, just be careful. A lot of credit cards have secondary coverage, which means first your car insurance would have to pay, then them, and there might be limits. So I specifically got a card with primary coverage, which means it's first. A couple years ago, I had a minor fender bender, put it through with the insurance company, never heard another word—fully covered.

I also have an annual travel policy through Allianz for trip delays and all those kinds of things, so I always decline all the insurances. He said, “Well, you know, some of them don’t cover.” I said, “What, do you have Chase?” I said yes, I have Chase, I have Allianz. That was the end of the discussion. We pick up the car, drop off the car, and I look at the receipt—there’s a charge for insurance. Or at least it looked like a charge for insurance.

When I called to complain, they said, “Well, that was Ireland, and Ireland is a separate franchise. We have to look into it.” Never heard back. Called again. Still nothing. Looked it up, and it turns out that in Ireland they charge you a mandatory fee for declining the insurance. Yes, you heard that right. I declined the insurance and still got charged €28—€7 a day—for not taking their insurance. And that’s to protect them in case your insurance isn’t sufficient. I was never told that. We had a discussion, I said I didn’t want any insurance, and he just charged me this fee.

All right, how about AI chatbots? I have my own Ask Alan Anything. I train it every day and train it on my new presentations. I look at the logs—I can’t see who’s saying what, but I can see what's being asked. I update it all the time. The thing that frustrates me, and probably you as well, is when you ask a question to a customer support bot and it can’t answer your question, or you say, “Can I get a hold of a real person?” and it just keeps asking you questions. Frustrating.

That’s the biggest thing with creating any kind of chatbot—mine’s more of an AI agent—but creating a chatbot requires training. It’s got to be trained on the right things or trained on what to do when it can’t answer. It’s got to refer you to a person. At least it should.

Here’s another one. Many of you know I’m into whiskey. I like blending other whiskeys together and making our own thing called the Berg Bourbon Blend. We don’t sell it anywhere. We give them out as gifts. It’s just a fun thing to do. I sometimes bring them to conferences, so if you happen to come to some of the conferences, you might get a taste once in a while.

I tried different kinds of wood to age them. If you don’t know anything about whiskey, it comes out of the still clear, goes into the barrel, and the barrel provides 50 to 70% of the flavor and color. Otherwise it’s clear, like moonshine. So I ordered different kinds of wood. I went on Amazon and found these charred oak sticks. Oak is what the barrels are made of, and the charring creates a charcoal layer, which acts as a filter.

I ordered this new type. It shows up, and they were—well, think about charcoal. It breaks off into powder. All they did was put these sticks into a bag, seal the bag, put a label on it, and send it out. Not in anything else. Not in a box, not with bubble wrap. It shows up, the bag had gotten torn in shipping. My wife picks up the bag and now charcoal goes on her, on the tablecloth, on her clothes. Needless to say, she’s not happy.

When I reached out to the seller, the seller said, “Oh, there was another item for a dollar more that came packed differently.” They’re blaming me for not ordering the other item. How am I supposed to know that? First time ordering from them. Then I responded again, saying I’m just trying to let you know this is how it came. They said, “Don’t use a utility knife to open the bag.” What are you supposed to open a bag with? A plastic opaque bag. A knife, scissors—something. Charcoal will come out. They’re blaming me for their lack of packing correctly. So I gave them the one-star review they deserved for their lousy customer service.

What else? You go to buy something, you see a price, and then you go into the store and it’s on sale, so you get the sale price. Normal stuff. Well, I applied for a credit card through Chase. It had a bonus: $750 cash back if you spent a certain amount in a few months. The day it was approved, I noticed on their website they were offering $900 cash back—not 750—for the exact same card, exact same terms. It was probably there when I applied, but I think I applied through something in the mail. I called and said, “Do I get the 900?” The person said, yeah, I would imagine so, but you have to wait until you get your card and your statement.

I get it, it says 750. I call up: what about the nine? They said the nine doesn’t apply because I applied through the other way. I said the offer is on your website today. It was on your website the day I got approved. Why wouldn’t it apply to me? Long story short, I went to my local branch. They called up. Told no. I called again, spoke to a supervisor. I’ve gotten two letters saying it doesn’t apply.

The offer is there for the public. Not a private offer. Public. The one you sent me wasn’t as good. But you’re offering the public a better offer, and you won’t give me the offer that’s on your website the day I got approved. I have personal accounts, business accounts, car loans, credit cards. Been a customer for a long time. It’s not the way to deal with a customer.

So is it just me or are you seeing the same thing? I’m sure you’re running into these friction points. Because that’s what these are—friction points. And if you turn it around and say, if the person on the other end was the customer, what would they want? They would want what I’m asking for. I don’t think I’m asking for anything unreasonable. If there’s an offer on your website the same day I got approved, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask for that. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for Hertz to disclose a fee for not taking insurance. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.

I also had one with United Airlines recently. I was delayed four hours because of air traffic control and weather. I booked a hotel so I wouldn’t have to fly in super late. In the past, they’ve reimbursed me all or part of that hotel. This time they said no because it was weather and air traffic control. I wrote back and expressed my dissatisfaction. They sent a letter, didn’t reimburse me, but gave me 5,000 miles. Doesn’t equal the $350 I spent for the hotel. Had I known they wouldn’t reimburse me, I probably could have gotten a cheaper hotel.

So these kinds of things where you look and say they’re inconsistent with past behaviors, inconsistent with what good customer service is. And it gives us all a chance to take a look and say, okay, let’s flip the table. The next time someone’s asking us for something, and if we were them, what would we want? Is there any reason we can’t do that? Is there any reason they can’t improve their chatbots? If somebody says “Can I speak to a real person?” it should say “Sure, I can do that,” or “It’s out of hours,” or whatever.

I called American Express to cancel my platinum card because they raised the fee to $895 a year. Yeah, you heard that right. $900 a year for the card. I said no thank you. I don’t need that. I have other cards, including others of theirs. They did a very good job trying to save me, but none of the benefits would add up to $900 for me.

Again, what would you want if you were the customer? Can you make it easier for them? Are we making it hard for them because it’s easier for us? That’s a really bad reason for doing things.

I’m in the process of creating a system for trade shows. If you were at Wedding MBA, you would have seen this. You scan a QR code, go through the process, buy your books, show us the invoice or email confirmation at the booth, and get your books. You don’t have to wait in line. You can do it while you’re sitting and eating, sitting in a session—make it nice and easy. We’re working hard to reduce the steps and the friction. Not as good as I’d like it to be yet, but we’ve cut out a lot of things to make it easier.

So is it just me, or is customer service getting worse? Have any stories you want to share, please share them with me. Thanks for listening, and look into Ask Alan Anything. It can answer your questions 24/7.

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Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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