Parking - March 2010 - 11

interruptions, but is working at repairing its image: it improved from number five in 2008. 6. HSBC—You might not even have noticed, but your local retailer such as Costco or Best Buy may actually use the services of HSBC to administer their in-house credit cards. London, UK based-HSBC is known for its aggressive lending and collection practices, which it also aggressively communicates to its patrons (“As you can see right there in the fine print, it says we can change your interest rate at any time…”). These guys should move into weather forecasting, at least they tell you you’re going to be dumped on ahead of time. 5. Time Warner Cable—America’s second largest cable operator has the same issues as Qwest but is just better (worse?) at it. Nearly one-third of its customers responding to the survey thought their service was “poor.” 4. Capital One—Many TV viewers have seen the rampaging Viking-type characters asking, “What’s in your wallet?” The answer appears to be: Capital One’s hand. Like the other credit card companies listed, CO seems to be leading the way with new twists to its fees and charges, especially for those who miss a payment. 3. Sprint Nextel—The cell phone service, with its unique innovation of click-to-talk to your personal network has long been a service bane. More than 40 percent of survey respondents dinged the firm as “poor,” alleging such acts as not providing basic coverage in their advertised service area, not fully disclosing terms of agreements, and not completely resolving customer problems by hustling too quickly through service calls. 2. Comcast—It’s very possible a too-rapid expansion is to blame for this firm’s appearance at number two. Only 30 percent of poll respondents rated its service as “good” or “excellent”—the lowest of all companies surveyed—while more than 41 percent rated it as “poor.” Its service challenges appear to mirror those of the other communications firms in the Bottom Ten. 1. AOL—Back-to-back championships for the Virginiabased Mother of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in 2008 and 2009! Woohoo! Nearly 45 percent of respondents label AOL service as “poor.” Leading the complaints, according to the MSN Money article, are the difficulty in unsubscribing from the paid service, excessive spam, unwanted soft ware downloads, and linguistically-challenged, offshore, “English” speaking, customer service reps. (Disclosure: this writer has successfully utilized an AOL address for 15 years.) Many of the firms listed above have commented on the Hall of Shame and claim to be working to improve their soiled service reputations. Others seem to care less. You can learn more about the Hall of Shame and the enshrinees’ responses at: http://articles.moneycentral. msn.com/SmartSpending/ConsumerActionGuide/ the-customer-service-hall-of-shame-2009.aspx So what are some takeaways for the parking industry from this survey? How about this Top Ten, in no particular order: 1. Identify and maintain a positive corporate culture even through acquisitions and expansion. 2. Be wary of “get-rich” schemes that seem to chart a path to easy money and/or nickel and dime your core customer base. 3. Don’t oversell your clients and customers on what you can do for them; keep expectations modest enough that you can always exceed them. 4. Clearly disclose your rules, regulations, and charges and then give your field personnel some flexibility in enforcement. 5. While a certain “esprit de corps” is essential in building organizational pride and culture, avoid appearing exclusive, exclusionary, or non-transparent. 6. Be forgiving of customers who make “mistakes,” at least the first time or two. 7. Get your billing right; if you don’t, fi x it quickly. 8. Start your new customers off on the right foot; a bad first impression is hard to undo. 9. When troubleshooting customer complaints, make complete resolution of the problem both a priority and an objective. 10. Hire good communicators for positions that will encounter customer complaints and provide them with training not only in your policies and procedures, but the psychology of problem resolution. Next month, we’ll look at what can be learned from the top ten in the Customer Service Hall of Fame. Charles R. “Charlie” Munn III, CAPP CPP is a former commercial , , parking executive and operations consultant. He is now a customer service management consultant and freelance writer. Contact him at cmunn3@aol.com. www.npapark.org PARKING March 2010

Parking - March 2010

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