progressive v.s. states farm, AT &T
Recently I have realized how important role of service design is in a business.
First of all, Progressive and States farm. I have changed my car insurance from Progressive to States farm because I was unsatisfied with their customer service. It is a special occasion for me because I am a lazy customer who is too lazy to change a service unless I am very upset. The problem in service I believe was coming from communication between departments. Long story short, Progressive has required couple documents from me for the car insurance but there was division between a department that I can communicate with ( people who take phone calls) and the department who actually gives approval to the documents. They were asking for two different types of documents and telling me two different stories.Since the time ran out and I cannot drive without an insurance I decided to call up another company, States Farm and after clear direction and a way to talk to people directly (through their local office) I decided to change my insurance. This might be time for them to go over their stakeholder map figure out ways to communicate better between front line representatives and other departments.
I had exact opposite experience right after with AT&T. It was time for me to get my security deposit back and I found out they sent the check to my old apartment address a month ago. And when I called, the employee I spoke to over the phone told me that it will take 2 months for me to get the deposited check again. I asked him if they can send the money directly to the bank account to avoid hassle and he said there is no such policy. I was very upset and ended the call very unhappy. However, couple hours later, another representative from another department called me and told me that instead of check they have issued refund to my bank account. The money arrived the next day and I was happy. I complained to one department and it didn't take long for another department in charge to respond to my complaint. I was impressed by their communication.
Big companies have lots of departments within them. People complain to frontline workers although often they are not the one in charge specific matter. Because of it, efficient communication between frontline workers and other departments is important to achieve high customer satisfaction.