Despite what the title of this blog post implies, AT&T service representatives all did a good to excellent job helping me solve (maybe) problems with a balky DSL connection.

So this post is not meant to slam AT&T, but rather serve as a teachable moment. Because sometimes good intentions and even good actions don't add up to genuine customer loyalty.

Loyal to AT&T? Not so much

Speaking of loyalty, I suspect AT&T thinks I'm a loyal customer. I've been a DSL and business phone line customer for 10+ years, since switching from another DSL provider that let me down. When I've interacted with AT&T staff, I've generally been pleased.

But cracks are appearing in my presumed loyalty. When my wife and I moved into our new condo, we decided to split our business between AT&T and Comcast. Both have bundled services for TV, phone and Internet, but we didn't feel comfortable putting all our digital eggs in one basket because:

• Comcast's cable service went down occasionally, which is no big deal for watching TV but a big problem if it means (in my mind at least) an Internet outage.
  
  
• AT&T's U-Verse was (in my mind at least) unproven for TV/cable replacement. Our friends liked the service but we couldn't figure out if/how the cabling would work in our condo.

So when we moved in, the edge went to AT&T. But we decided to try Comcast's VoIP for our home phone. And keep our options open for the future in looking for an integrated service.

Fear

I am an advocate of generating repeat business by building relationships with people, not with a piece of plastic. Too many companies create loyalty programs for their customers which don’t create a true bond. Reward points can be the icing on the cake to demonstrate customer appreciation, but companies should not depend on these programs to build customer relationships.

I have found that in the majority of cases, people re-visit specific establishments because of the connections they have made with the servers or sales associates. They go to the same coffee shop each day because John, the server, gives them a big smile when they enter. He knows their name, their typical order and when he tells them to have a great day, he really means it. John at the coffee shop is eager to see his customers and his customers are happy to see him too.

If you want to create loyal customers, ones who will only visit your business instead of your competitor’s, make sure you hire folks who are welcoming and who let the customer know they are looking forward to seeing them again. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a coffee shop, service station, food-mart or an apparel store; hire people who innately understand how to build relationships. Instead of rewarding your customers with points, provide them with the best prize of all; people who really care about them as a person first, and a customer second.

Did you know... when customers cancel their subscriptions or their memberships, it's not the end of your relationship with them? Clearly, it's not a stage that you ever want to reach in the customer experience lifecycle, but if you do get there, it doesn't have to be over. And more importantly, you don't have to treat the customer like it's over. It's not.

I know. I know. Breaking up is hard to do. But don't treat customers with anger and frustration if they decide to cancel or move on. Don't process their cancellations begrudgingly. As a matter of fact, be gracious, grateful, and make it easy for them to cancel, if they need to.

Why is this important? Two reasons:

I upgraded my mobile phone recently, and went to my network provider’s local store to do it. While I was there, there was another customer service story unfolding and I confess I did eavesdrop a little. Well, it takes ages to get all your numbers transferred from one phone to another, what else was I to do?

There was a customer in the store who had been with the network provider for years and couldn’t get his new phone activated. There didn’t seem to be any reason for this, other than a series of internal processes that required him to either be somewhere else, or wait another day, or something. All told, he was obviously very frustrated and this was apparently the third day in a row that he’d been to the branch to sort it out. Each time, the staff said it would be sorted “tomorrow”.

The staff in branch were talking to the contact center to try to resolve the issue, but no matter what option they suggested, they met with a resounding “no”. Eventually the customer spoke to the call center again. I was struck when he said;

“I just want my phone to work. Give me a solution. Everything you’ve said is about your processes. I don’t care about your processes, I just want solutions”.