In the past I’ve had issues with them (very much the “send it to us and we’ll quote to fix it” response) but recently (case in point the Vaio exploding battery recall) they handled in a very pleasing way.

As consumers become more informed and reputations are only a Live or Google search away from damage corporations will need to wake up to the fact that caring for your customers in an effective, delightful manner is no longer an option….

At least, we can hope

I have bought 2 laptops since my Vaio moment: an HP and a MACBook. The customer really is always right, one way or the other.

Customer service should be a marketing strategy not an operational expense.

This is a trick learned from insurance companies and it is most successful (from the corporation’s perspective) when switching costs to an alternative are highest, but that is not a necessary condition.

These businesses have learned that they can generally bank on inertia winning over indignation, at least in “round 1″.

The corporations may cave when challenged, when the customer gets an attorney involved, or when PR is at risk, most of the time it won’t ever get that far and the money stays in their pocket.

How do so many corporations get away with this under the consumer radar? The key is in recognizing the many different ways corporations say “no” without really saying “no”:

One flavor of no is “the no of absurd repair costs”, as you experienced. Internally this is known as “the no of ‘fuck it, I’ll just buy a new one’”. This no is most often heard in conjunction with fragile products with time-limited warranties.

Another “no” is the “no of infinite support tiers”, where you need to escalate 3 chains up to reach somebody who is in a position to understand (let alone resolve) your problem. The problem of course is that each tier is incented to prevent your complaint from escalating, and there is no accountability at any level (the call is never actually “being recorded for quality and training purposes” when you need it to be).

Another “no” is “the no of endless paperwork”: drowning the customer in forms, process, and inexplicable waiting, as is often the case with manufacturer’s rebates, or furniture warranties. The game is to try to trick the customer into not following the written claim procedure, so the manufacturer can legitimately discharge its obligation. The industry even has a name for the frequency with which a corporation can successfully (and legally) weasel out of a service agreement: it’s called “breakage” and there are patents pending for breakage maximization techniques (lest anyone think this tactic is anything other than deliberate).

Yet another no is the “no of inadequate remedy”. By example:

“We’re sorry your $500 Treo 700p cell phone is broken, but you’re in month 13 of a 12-month warranty. How about $100 for it, or $100 off the brand new $600 Treo 755p?”

“We’re sorry your flight was canceled and your baggage was lost and your rescheduled flight was delayed 6 hours. How about 5,000 SkyMiles for your trouble?”

It’s getting better. Slowly. Thanks to Digg, the blogosphere, even Yelp (for local businesses) – companies are finding it harder to perpetuate bluff-based customer service, but it is still the standard at the F500 level.

People really under estimate the power of customer service – I like to consider it one of the best forms of guerrilla marketing myself.