"Sorry, that's our policy"

If there's one thing that makes me angry, it's bad customer service. And bad customer service representatives. I've written a lot on here about my opinions regarding customer service because I feel, as someone entering the service industry, it is so important for me to be clear on what I believe, and what I find to be exceptional, so that I might be fortunate enough to deliver that to other people with whom I interact.

But there is one thing that burns me in a way that even the worst customer service can't touch. And surprisingly, they're not that far apart.

Bad policy trumps bad service every time.

Say it with me: Bad policy trumps bad service every time.

Say it again. Say it out loud. For the love of all that is holy, say it a hundred times.

Bad policy is a symptom of a broken system. And if you're system is broken, you're done. End of story. I (the customer) am long gone, and am busy telling my friends how broken your system is.

I've always believed that the worst thing a customer service representative can say to a customer is the title of this blog entry. But the catch here is that sometimes, the policy is flexible. Fees and add-ons can be negotiated (see my riffs on add-ons here.) Service can be expedited. Exceptions can be made.

When you have a customer-oriented policy that has no room for exception built into it, I believe that policy, and thus, the system it defines, is broken.

The event which sparked this tirade of mine is AT&T wireless' text message plans. The most basic plan is $5 for 200 text messages, which is really 100 messages when we remember that text messaging has now become a legitimate medium for discourse. This is, in my opinion, an unreasonable policy, but not nearly as unreasonable as what comes next.

The next step up from this plan is 1,500 text messages for $15.

If you are AT&T wireless, how on earth do you justify this ridiculous policy to your customers?

This infuriates me in a way I'm not comfortable discussing in an open forum. And I'm not the only one. There's really no excuse for a policy like this, and I feel for all the CSR's who have to defend it to angry customers like myself with the tepid response 'Sorry, that's our policy.'