AM Trust Provides Telephone Automated Frustration and Wonderful Customer Service

This wasn’t a test.  I really wanted to find a colleague from my past, but the experience was just too good to pass up sharing.

I found someone that I used to work with via LinkedIn and according to their profile they work at AM Trust.  Of course LinkedIn doesn’t provide the phone number and so I looked on line – found the customer service number which was an exercise in frustration:  “push 1 for this and 2 for that” and then there were so many sub-directories I felt like it was the Journey to the Center of the Earth.

So then I used yellowpages.com and found a local Cleveland number.   I called and asked to be transferred.  She said “okay”, hit a few buttons and my call was dumped.  Hurumph.

So I called back and a man answered and said – you need the operator and transferred me to a delightful conversation.  The woman that answered had a sweet, soft voice with just a hint of the south.  As in South Carolina, not Southern India. 

She asked me to spell the name “is that Kathy with a C or K?”  I spelled it with a K and then proceeded to spell her last name. The woman said “Oh, thank you so much.”  And she sounded like she meant it.

She searched and kept me posted.  “I’m typing it in but I just can’t find it.”

She could have said – we have no one here by that name.  I would have said “oh, okay” and hung up.  Afterall, I don’t know what office my friend works in or if she’s even still there.

But this woman was determined to connect me. 

“Let me try this again.”

I explained that we’d worked together and I wasn’t sure she was there but she said, well, let’s just see what we can do for you.

She was so sweet, I found myself apologizing to HER for taking up her time. 

In the end we both agreed that we were just not going to be successful.  That’s an important point – we were a team, partners in the mystery. 

In an age of automated frustration, this receptionist was a delight.  I enjoyed listening to her and could just picture having a cup of coffee and sharing family photos from our wallet.

What did I learn? 

In this case – I spoke with four people and a computer.  In each case I was treated and made to feel differently. 

• The computer was a frustration. 
• The first real person made me feel insignificant and then stupid because it took me awhile to realize that I wasn’t on hold but had in fact been hung up on. 
• The guy made me feel like an imposition. 

All of these perceptions and feelings in just less than 3 seconds – in fact, in just a MOMENT.  I felt frustrated, insignificant, stupid and bothersome.

However, the last woman was a delight.  She was warm and welcoming and a wonderful representation of the company.  So what does that tell us?

That it isn’t the name over the door so much as the person you are having direct contact with that forms your opinion about that business.

I think that’s an important statement.  So – does that mean that one person in your organization can take all of the good will associated with your company name and flush it down the toilet?