In the USA customer care usually is one of the top priority in a business. Some companies go to great lenghth to maintain a relationship with a customer. For example, the summer I was preparing to study abroad in France, I had planned on cancleling my cell phone plan. However, T-mobile managed to let me negotiate my needs. Because I have no use for US cell phone service in France I felt like I don't need it. After a lengthy call T-mobile offered to postpone my plan and in return I signed a 2 year contract. I have heard that it takes less resources to keep a customer than it would to obtain new ones. As a business student I would agree.
The opposite holds true in France. The customer is seen last and customer care does not exist. Especially true in in public settings, where you are at the mercy of a civil servant. In the book naked conversation by Scoble and Israel listed conducts on blogging etiquette for companies. Reading this I thought about the world of difference between customer care here in the US and France. The concept of blogging for customer care I think will never exist in France.
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I agree with you, Allison. Consumer care differs from country to country. I believe that consumer care in Japan will surprise you more. It may be "an excess of service". Most of employees in Japan are told to treat customers very carefully and politely by their bosses in almost all industries. Even in convenience stores like Seven Eleven, employees say “Good morning, welcome to our store!”, smiling and bowing, whenever consumers come, and say “Thank you for coming!” whenever consumers leave the store. What’s more, we can see “Smile \ 0 (=$ 0)” on menus in McDonalds in Japan. They listed "smile \ 0" on their menus to tell their consumers all employees in McDonalds respect the consumers, and smile all the time no matter what happens. It is kind of a…funny menu.
Your story about T-Mobile reminded me of a great site for consumers: consumerist.com. In addition to telling when companies are "screwing over" customers, it gives many tips for negotiating with companies for your best interest. There was a writeup from a person that used to work for T-Mobile that described how you can get a better deal.. Check it out if you have the chance..
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