Moving ISP
We’ve tentatively started the process of moving to a different broadband supplier today. We’ve been with Pipex for a very long time but have been getting increasingly disatisfied with them. The connectivity has been pretty reasonable (apart from a couple of weird blips recently which may be our router or may be them, not sure…) but their customer service has been atrocious.
If you have a problem you have to pay a high rate to phone and usually end up speaking to somebody in India who spends ages going through the standard stuff with you and doesn’t really try to understand what your actual problem is. If you email for support you are first faced with a message saying ‘we can’t even say hello unless you tell us all your security info’ and then get a random and completely nonsensical reply several weeks after you’ve solved the problem for yourself. Utterly laughable.
Not to mention when they phone you but then refuse to tell you what the call is about unless you answer the security questions. I have a policy that I won’t give out any info over the phone unless I have made the call. Asking me to give my date of birth, mother’s maiden name, bra size etc. when they have initiated the call makes absolutely no sense and is … um … rather insecure.
So, bye bye Pipex, and hello Zen Internet who have been recommended to us by a friend. First impressions are good - I phoned up yesterday for some info and got a very helpful response. So let’s see how the transfer of service goes (eek!). We’ve been told that we may lose our phone line for one to two hours but apart from that we shouldn’t be internetless for too long. Hope not!
Five Star Service, One Star Budget
Some of the advice may seem like it’s common sense in a ‘I already knew that’ kind of way, but as the author points out - it’s not the knowing, it’s the doing that counts. If nothing else the book acts as a reminder of what you should be doing. You can use it to dip into when you feel your business needs a boost, or as a manual for transforming your customer service if you work through it a chapter at a time. Well worth a read.
A truly brilliant business book.
Rating: 
