Tag: customer support

General Motors Vannila Ice Cream Case Study


This is a real story that happened between the customer of General Motors and its Customer-Care Executive. Pls read on…..

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:

‘This is the second time I have written to you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night, but the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we’ve eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It’s also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem…

You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice-cream, when I start back from the store my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I’m serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds “What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?” The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway.

The latter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn’t start.

The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got

chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.

Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man’s car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: He jotted down all sorts of data: time of day, type of gas uses, time to drive back and forth etc.

In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavor.

Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn’t start when it took less time. E..ureka – Time was now the problem – not the vanilla ice cream!!!!  The engineer quickly came up with the answer: “vapor lock”.

It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.

Even crazy looking problems are sometimes real and all problems seem to be simple only when we find the solution, with cool thinking.

Don’t just say “problem is at the other end or it is  IMPOSSIBLE” without putting a sincere effort….

What really matters is your attitude and your perception.

Moral of the Story “Try to Fix the Bug instead of making it as a Known Issue”

Real Great Story…..!!!!!!!

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Tips for Customer Support Managers


1. Get Inside your Customers’ Skin
In order to align all the company’s functions with developing, maintaining, sharing and performing to detailed customer experience maps, the company needs to have deep personal relationships with its customers to truly understand them.

2. Relationship Determines Revenue
Customers often value relationship more than the product or service. Find out how to invest in stronger relationships, understand customer budget bibles and match their planning cycles.

3. Break the Technology Addiction
Technology doesn’t have all the answers and it can’t auto-service the customer. Technology is a tool and we must know when and how to use it in communications and analytics to create better decision outcomes. Invest in these tools, but don’t let them replace in-person conversations and relationships with customers.

4. Revenue requires a Village
Customer-centric organizations are not natural homes for lone-wolf, “hail-Mary pass” producing sales folks. Chief Customer Officers need sales, marketing and support departments to understand the holistic experience for the customer and deliver their individual components with the same tone, cadence and channels outlined in a unified experience map.

5. Pay for Relationship Quality
People do what they are financially incentivized for. CCOs that are supporting a customer-centric transformation are replacing NPS and customer sat scores with a measurement of each function’s role in delivering a customer experience that supports revenue. Instead of MBO, churn or close rates, consider performance metrics aligned with the customer experience story board, customer engagement and peer scoring.

6. Collaboration is your Lifeblood
Customer centric organizations are highly collaborative; it’s the secret sauce to delivering consistent, meaningful experiences and relationships. Only through enterprise-wide transparency, information sharing, proactive feedback, ideation and communication patterns that transcend hierarchical organization structures can teams respond to customer expectations and quickly resolve issues.

7. You’ll Never Know It All
One of the biggest challenges facing CROs transitioning to CCO is that they don’t know or have experience in all the functions – marketing, sales, distribution, and customer service/support. At best someone might have deep experience in two but not all. That also means CCOs need to let go of tendency to ‘command and control’ and lead by example, enforce highest of ethical behavior standards, enable employees to their jobs to the best of their ability, and focus on building healthy teams.

Courtesy: Forbes.Com

My Galaxy S2 got screwed – Wanted HELP


For last three days my Android GingerBREAD Samsung Galaxy S2 got screwed for some reason… I keep getting an error PROCESS SYSTEM NOT RESPONDING and it asks to WAIT or FORCE QUIT… Either way the system restarts…

I tried browsing thru all possible support forums and I see a lot of people posting the problem but couldn’t get a solution online…

Then I thought it is time to know the doors of Samsung support… It was a wonderful call centre support and was happy with the courtesy… Asking for my location they gave me the address of their authorised support centre…

I went there with the hopes of fixing the issue… First of all I was startled to see a Samsung authorised support centre Ian dirty complex… Secondly the place was choatic and it was all irated customers shouting at the support staff… What even shocked me was the support staffs were rude in handling the customers…

I thought for a moment if this was a right place for me to handover my expensive phone and I walked back… For last 3 days I’ve been living with this phone which restarts often and I could use a lot of app… Now I’m struck on deciding a solution…

Should I go back to the service centre and give them a chance?
Should I call back Samsung and tell them the situation?
Should I try to solve the issue myself??

I thought it would be better to blog and see if my readers have any solution in hand… Folks pls let me know if you had come across this issue and solved it… I’d be grateful if you can help me solve the issue…