And even though I was expecting it, I was still surprised because not only was the bill for the wrong amount, they had managed to spell my name differently twice on the one document. This is such a common occurrence that I am pretty sure most of us are thinking “yeah, if I had a dollar for every time that happened” etc etc. The problem is you do, or did…

Imagine it costs a dollar, every time you have to question a bill or correct a mistake made by a company that is supposed to be providing you with goods or a service? The truth is, in most cases it costs a lot more. If you work out the amount of time you spend either on the phone or internet dealing with the company in question and then factor in what you earn, divide that by the time in question, include the phone call cost or equivalent, then you have spent at least a dollar if not much more. In my case because it was a phone company I had to call, they win twice!

Transactions should almost always be fairly simple. I agree to purchase goods or services at an agreed price. I receive the goods or services; I pay for the goods or services. If I complicate the system by adding special clauses then I accept that this may affect the cost, but in a standard situation (like my phone bill), how hard is it to get that right?

The outcome in reality is simply a decrease in customer satisfaction and we all know how much large corporations care about customer satisfaction. If my satisfaction dips below a certain level then I will certainly look elsewhere for service, but in reality while there are plenty of competitors in this space, there is not much difference in the service they offer their customers.

Wouldn’t it be nice if just one stood out?

Written by Davin Broadbent