When "Help" Should Mean "Help"
I haven’t been blogging much in the past few days. My blogging tool was caught in password hell. There was simply no logging onto the thing.
What ensued as I tried to fix the problem is all too familiar to many consumers. First, I tried to contact the folks who make the blogging tool. I searched all over the site for a phone number, figuring it was hidden pages and pages below the homepage. No such luck. Then I tried to email the help desk. That wasn’t easy, given that the only “help” offered was pages of technical support printed on the site. Only by bothering a bunch of folks who were not listed as support people (but who had posted email addresses on their site), did I get any response.
In the meantime, I also tried calling the Web site host. Again, finding an actual customer support number wasn’t easy. Just as with the blogging tool company, the Web site host tried to send me to the “help” pages on the site rather than a real live human being. It certainly made me ponder, “Does anyone REALLY want to help the consumer?”
To make a long story short, the blogging tool people tried to get me to contact the Web site host. The Web site host wanted me to contact the blogging tool people. Remember when the SUVs started tipping over and the car company blamed the tire company, only to have the tire company blame the car company? Granted, no one was terribly injured in my little incident, but the situation was very déjà vu.
Finally, the blogging tool company came to my rescue (ta-da!). So, they get the points in this situation. But my frustration was one of the customer stuck in the middle with little support from anyone. We’ve all been there.
The best marketers offer “help” and really mean it. Others have to be nagged into action by persistent consumers. For the record, I’d much rather have “consumer support” that is truly “help,” not “consumer frustration.”
