Hi There !

Over the last year, I or my employees have had problems with the following:

Public Storage
Fuddruckers
www.monster.com

These weren't small things----they were egregious problems, clearly wrong.

The problem is not that the executives "blew us off."  On the
contrary, top executives were always eager to hear the details so they
could fix things.

But at lower levels in these companies, people simply did not care. 
In fact, they were often quite rude.

Here is the problem:  it takes so much time (phone calls and e-mails)
to reach the right person at a higher level in the company, that by
the time you're finished you are exhausted.  At that point, you (the
person with a legitimate gripe) don't even care any more.

How could one spend 5-10 minutes bringing this to the attention of the
right people, and then be done with it?  (This probably involves the
Internet, but we are open to all suggestions.)


A 5-star answer would be 3 ideas.  No web sites or links
required---just your opinion.

Please note our goal is not to get compensation from errant
companies----we just want someone in authority to acknowledge the
problem and fix it.

All comments greatly appreciated !

ron

---

Request for Question Clarification by aht-ga on 15 Feb 2004 21:23 PST

ron:

I feel your pain, as I've been encountering (much too often) the
current down-trend in customer service levels as well. Whether it's
because companies are trying to squeeze too much cost out of their
processes at the detriment of service levels, or whether its a general
decline in people caring about their customers, it's hard to say.
Well, we can either assume that we're just having a run of bad luck,
and that there is actually someone in the company who would care, or
we can write it off and move on to the next service provider.
Personally, I prefer the former, as I'm a pessimistic optimist at
heart (ie. a walking contradiction).

Some quick ideas, relative to the type of companies you mentioned above:

Franchise operations - Companies like Public Storage and Fuddruckers
are always 'eager' to hear about bad customer service experiences at
any of their franchises. It's a fact of life for them that there will
always be franchises and branches that underperform. The trick for the
heads of the companies is finding out about the underperformers at the
least possible cost (both in expense, and in lost customers). Sure,
they send out mystery shoppers every now and then, but that's
expensive to do at anything higher than a small-sample level. So, most
of these companies provide some form of web-based or e-mail based
feedback system that goes to the head office where often the 'best of
the crop' feedback is chosen to help set an example. For example,
Fuddruckers (http://www.fuddruckers.com/talk-to-us.html ) has such a
feedback page on their website. Public Storage, on the other hand,
does not. Which leads to idea #2....

If I either cannot find, or do not want to use, an online feedback
form, I then go with the personal approach. By this, I mean sending a
message directly to an individual "at the top". Depending on the size
of the company, "at the top" can mean a regional manager, or a
corporate executive. In the case of Public Storage, since they do not
have a feedback form online, I would then go take a look at their
press releases to see if I can glean an executive's name and contact
info. If you look at
http://www.publicstorage.com/press/pdf/press2004_Jan16.pdf , for
instance, you will see the name and phone number of the Chief
Operating Officer of PS, Mr. Harvey Lenkin himself. So, if you feel
strongly enough about the issue, I'd say let Mr. Lenkin hear about it.
At the very least, he will put you onto the regional manager... and
the probability that the RM will want to deal with your issue is a lot
higher if you are referred by his COO. Do I enjoy "going to the top",
also referred to by the providers of poor customer service as "going
over my head"? No, but sometimes it is necessary if I like a
particular company, and do not really want to give my business to one
of their competitors instead.

Finally, there are companies like Monster, who are a little harder to
track down. As a web-based company, the online "store" that you are
dealing with may appear to be the only way to interact with the
company. For example, it is relatively difficult to find any way of
contacting somewhere higher up at Monster, through their front-door of
http://www.monster.com or through their 1-800 number. For such
companies, you have to use the power of Google, to see through the
mist. In the case of Monster, if you search on "monster investor
relations", the first hit that comes back is a link to the real
corporate domain, monsterworldwide.com. Here, you will find a complete
list of everyone "at the top", including their direct e-mail
addresses. For most publicly traded companies, even Internet-based
ones, investor relations is very important to the folks 'at the top',
so that is often your most direct route to finding out who to contact,
and how to contact them.

There are other methods available if you simply want to vent; there
are multiple online rating sites (such as BizRate.com), and consumer
advocacy sites (such as the aptly named Complaints.com ). However,
these are only to give you the opportunity to 'yell' in writing, you
cannot have any reasonable expectation of a response through this
method (other than, perhaps, from a lawyer trying to fish for a
class-action suit!).

Anyway, I hope you find at least part of this useful! 

Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

---

Clarification of Question by nronronronro-ga on 15 Feb 2004 23:52 PST

aht---this is a terrific answer.  Please post so I can pay you.

Thanks !!
ron

ron,

I'm glad you found the information I provided helpful! I'm posting it
as the Answer:

-----------------------------------------------------------

I feel your pain, as I've been encountering (much too often) the
current down-trend in customer service levels as well. Whether it's
because companies are trying to squeeze too much cost out of their
processes at the detriment of service levels, or whether its a general
decline in people caring about their customers, it's hard to say.
Well, we can either assume that we're just having a run of bad luck,
and that there is actually someone in the company who would care, or
we can write it off and move on to the next service provider.
Personally, I prefer the former, as I'm a pessimistic optimist at
heart (ie. a walking contradiction).

Some quick ideas, relative to the type of companies you mentioned above:

Franchise operations - Companies like Public Storage and Fuddruckers
are always 'eager' to hear about bad customer service experiences at
any of their franchises. It's a fact of life for them that there will
always be franchises and branches that underperform. The trick for the
heads of the companies is finding out about the underperformers at the
least possible cost (both in expense, and in lost customers). Sure,
they send out mystery shoppers every now and then, but that's
expensive to do at anything higher than a small-sample level. So, most
of these companies provide some form of web-based or e-mail based
feedback system that goes to the head office where often the 'best of
the crop' feedback is chosen to help set an example. For example,
Fuddruckers (http://www.fuddruckers.com/talk-to-us.html ) has such a
feedback page on their website. Public Storage, on the other hand,
does not. Which leads to idea #2....

If I either cannot find, or do not want to use, an online feedback
form, I then go with the personal approach. By this, I mean sending a
message directly to an individual "at the top". Depending on the size
of the company, "at the top" can mean a regional manager, or a
corporate executive. In the case of Public Storage, since they do not
have a feedback form online, I would then go take a look at their
press releases to see if I can glean an executive's name and contact
info. If you look at
http://www.publicstorage.com/press/pdf/press2004_Jan16.pdf , for
instance, you will see the name and phone number of the Chief
Operating Officer of PS, Mr. Harvey Lenkin himself. So, if you feel
strongly enough about the issue, I'd say let Mr. Lenkin hear about it.
At the very least, he will put you onto the regional manager... and
the probability that the RM will want to deal with your issue is a lot
higher if you are referred by his COO. Do I enjoy "going to the top",
also referred to by the providers of poor customer service as "going
over my head"? No, but sometimes it is necessary if I like a
particular company, and do not really want to give my business to one
of their competitors instead.

Finally, there are companies like Monster, who are a little harder to
track down. As a web-based company, the online "store" that you are
dealing with may appear to be the only way to interact with the
company. For example, it is relatively difficult to find any way of
contacting somewhere higher up at Monster, through their front-door of
http://www.monster.com or through their 1-800 number. For such
companies, you have to use the power of Google, to see through the
mist. In the case of Monster, if you search on "monster investor
relations", the first hit that comes back is a link to the real
corporate domain, monsterworldwide.com. Here, you will find a complete
list of everyone "at the top", including their direct e-mail
addresses. For most publicly traded companies, even Internet-based
ones, investor relations is very important to the folks 'at the top',
so that is often your most direct route to finding out who to contact,
and how to contact them.

There are other methods available if you simply want to vent; there
are multiple online rating sites (such as BizRate.com), and consumer
advocacy sites (such as the aptly named Complaints.com ). However,
these are only to give you the opportunity to 'yell' in writing, you
cannot have any reasonable expectation of a response through this
method (other than, perhaps, from a lawyer trying to fish for a
class-action suit!).

-----------------------------------------------------------

Thanks again for the opportunity share my ideas with you!


Regards,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

aht----terrific answer !   Thank you !

ron

Ron,

Regarding Fuddruckers, what can you expect from a company that chose a
name like that?

Seriously...

Many years ago, I had a serious complaint against a fast food
franchise called Minnie Pearl's Chicken. I wrote to the corporate
headquarters and sent a copy of the letter to the store manager and
the owner (two separate people.) Before I got a response from
Corporate, I received two very apologetic letters from the manager and
the owner, including coupons for $100 in free food. As aht mentions
above, franchisees may be concerned about their "image" in the eyes of
the corporate overlords, and are likely to try to make amends in order
to maintain an appearance of good customer service. In my case, I
later got an apology from Minnie Pearl's corporate headquarters. It
was not a form letter, and it specifically addressed the issues I had
raised in my complaint -- plus it gave me another $100 in coupons. If
the Minnie Pearl chain hadn't gone out of business shortly thereafter,
I might still be eating free chicken today. Plus I would weigh four
hundred pounds and need quintuple bypass surgery.

PinkFreud---you must be very fun at parties !

Thanks, as always, for your terrific comments.

ron

There is an art in how to complain.

Some folks immediately get on on high horse and immediately bring out
the worst in everybody.

Please ... I'm not complaining about you and your folks, nronronronro
(Have I got the spelling right?) ... who I am sure go about things in
the right way.

My strategy is to ask to speak to the supervisor (always a waste of
time); then to ask for the name of the Complaints Manager ... I always
complain in writing and send stuff Recorded Delivery ... with regular
follow-ups.

I have had some great payouts as compensation ...

But, of course, I'm not in the same league as Pinkfreud ...

But then who is?

pro bono nronro,

Thanks a million!
I always appreciate your great comments.

ron