Lenovo: Lessons in poor customer service.
For those of you that missed it, IBM no longer makes computers. Back in December of 2004, IBM decided to get out of computer manufacturing business and sell the entire operation to China-based Lenovo Group. For the next five years, they will be marketing the computers under the IBM name.
For those of you who have ever owned a ThinkPad, you know that they are well made machines. Sure they cost a bit more, but it is worth it.
I recently purchased a few Lenovo computers for a client and have been waiting to receive them. The order was placed on December 31, 2005 with an expected ship date of 2 to 4 weeks later.
Until this morning, I hadn’t heard anything about the order. No email. No call. I have been checking the order status since the date I submitted it and not much has changed.
This morning they sent me an email. And I quote:
Dear Customer,Customer Name (removed for privacy)
Customer Address (removed for privacy)Your Order Number is: ******
At the present time, the estimated ship date of your order is: 02/13/06
To reach your Account Executive please call:
(877) -**
Now I don’t expect a gushy email when it comes to communicating order information, but I do expect good service. And this is far from it.
A quick call to the Lenovo sales line number I received in the email and I was greeted with a rather short message:
We are now closed. Please call back during normal business hours.
The one important piece of information they left out of their message? I don’t know what their normal business hours are.
It’s not really the order delay that is the problem. Things happen all the time. Orders are late. Orders get lost. That’s the risk of being a customer. The part that shouldn’t happen is the poor service that follows the mistake. That’s the big chance companies get to win back a customer and make the relationship even stronger.
There is nothing better for business than turning a disgruntled customer into a happy one. So how hard would it be to get a phone call when something like this happens? Why should a customer have to spend time waiting on hold to remedy a problem they didn’t create?
In this age where consumers are more and more powerful and better educated than ever before, this type of service shouldn’t be tolerated.
