What's your name?
Today I had to call my insurance company to change my billing information. No big deal. Here’s how the conversation with customer service went:
- Ring, Ring…”Welcome to Big Insurance Co…existing customers press 2 to speak to an customer service representative.” [Everything good so far.]
- Wait on hold for 3-4 minutes. [Not great, but I'm at work, it's on speaker and I work while I wait...basically good so far.]
- “Hi, thanks for calling Big Insurance Co. My name is Kathy.” [Still doing just fine.] “May I have your account number?”
Ouch! I get that I’m just one of a zillion policy holders, but would it really have been so hard to ask my name? To treat me like a human? Would it have cost Big Insurance Co. anything to have the conversation go like this:
- “Hi, thanks for calling Big Insurance Co. My name is Kathy. What’s your name?”
- “Scott”
- “Hi, Scott. May I have your account number?”
It’s really minor, I know, but being friendly, treating customers like real people, like human beings…like customers…doesn’t take all that much effort, but makes a subtle difference.
P.S. Beyond that, Kathy was fine…my billing info got changed quickly, and I have no complaints with Big Insurance Co.
