Time for some real talk about FAQs and customer service. Picture this….
Stage 1: Love of a Brand
You love a brand and have loved this brand for years. You wear the brand everywhere and love the brand’s look. You follow all the social networks of your favorite brand. You live, breathe and promote this brand simply because it’s your favorite. You have even contemplated working as a customer service representative because that’s how much you love your Brand.
Imani Laners writes “Brand loyalty is not a mental act, but an emotional one and brand loyal customers have an emotional relationship with the brands they’re faithful to.”
Stage 2: Problem with a Brand
Unexpectedly, you have a problem with the brand. It’s a simple problem that could be solved relatively quickly with good customer service. You want to reach out to this brand because they have been so good to you over the years and you feel that they will take care of you. You know their customer service team is going to be top notch. The way they have been marketing over the years leads you to believe they are going to be there for you.
Stage 3: Seeking customer service for a Brand
The first step in your adventure is to hit the website and search for the customer service contact details. You are already very familiar with this because you love your brand! Your brand, after showing you the new promotions and popping up to be sure you are on their subscribed newsletter list, yields not one phone number or email to contact.
Stage 4: Not getting help with a Brand
After you have searched the entire website five times, you can’t seem to find any customer service information anywhere. What you did see is an FAQ page with a laundry list of ‘things that could potentially answer your question’.
You take a deep breath and think that it could take hours to go through this list of ‘frequently asked questions’. You scroll through the entire “fake customer service page” and find no answers.
According to Consumer Reports, the #1 Top Irritant of Customer Service is “can’t get a live person on the phone”. You are also irritated by this.
Stage 5: Anger over not getting help with a Brand
Now, your brand has officially let you down by not being there for you. You are upset that the customer service team you thought existed, seems to be nowhere in sight. You then venture off the website and “Google” your problem.
You then find other strangers with the same problem and it all goes back to the dreaded FAQ page. You are not the only one that is upset.
Stage 6: Sharing that anger with a friend about a Brand
At this point, you are upset about this lack of customer service. After defeat sets in you decide that you want to share your anger with a friend. You explain how this has utterly disappointed you because you love this brand so much and just want some answers. They sympathize and then you banter back and forth about being angry about it.
They say, why don’t you share it on social media? And a bright idea hits you.
Stage 7: Sharing that anger to the world about a Brand
The love for your brand has now dissipated and you are determined to get answers. You will create your own customer service if you have to. You blast on all social platforms expressing your anger through creative alliteration and appropriate emojis.
Since a rapid response is now standard, you know you will get some answers. You feel somewhat satisfied, however, your customer service issue is still not resolved.
Stage 8: Giving up hope to solve the issue with a Brand
After the anger subsides, you give up the hope that your problem will be solved. You close out their website, you shut down your computer and sigh. You look at your favorite product and instantly you are reminded that you were angry about the lack of customer service. Now just looking at the product doesn’t make you happy, only angry.
Stage 9: Abandoning your love for a Brand
Due to this experience, you feel you shouldn’t purchase from your Brand any longer. You have officially lost all love for your Brand and in fact don’t even use the product any longer. It just reminds you of your frustrations. You feel sad that you no longer have that favorite Brand.
You go online to find something to replace this feeling and find another Brand similar. The first thing you check to see is if the site has a customer service contact.
FAQs don’t equal customer service
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