Sunday, March 15, 2015

Complaints against Vodacom and Poor Customer Service

In a previous article, I complained about the lack of customer service in the airline industry, mainly, United Airlines. As I looked closely at the many complaints online, I noticed how many Vodacom received as well.  Every single one of them was about the lack of customer service.  Here are just a few snippets of what consumers think of Vodacom.
I have been with Vodacom for the past 10 years, and of late I have been receiving increasingly poor service from them. The last incident may be the last straw for me, and I may now be forced to consider going to another cellular service provider.
I would like to complain about how bad it feels to be a customer of Vodacom. I have 2 contracts with them and since the last contract of almost 4 years I've only had problems.
Upset about poor service in the accounts department with Vodacom.
Every complaint that I have read was about the lack of good quality service. Quality service can be difficult to quantify, for people’s opinions vary on this matter, but the whole can agree on certain qualities that I would like to share.

It should be worth noting that many customers try to contact Vodacom and their complaint department. Sadly many of them end up not recieving a good experience. Those problems end up on Facebook or the Vodacom corporate Twitter page.

Don’t forget the useful adage: the customer is always right. I have no idea who coined that phrase, but boy does it ring true. The customer is always right. Always.

The customer just wants to be heard.

The consumer is paying for a service and if that service does not meet the standard, the customer wants to be able to tell the person who can make a difference. Letting the customer have his or her say will go a long way in a business.

The situation needs to be solved in a timely manner. Meeting the need of the customer as quickly as possible is paramount to good business. If the Vodacom customer walks away from the store without the issue being resolved, then you just lost a customer. It seems like a simple thing, helping the paying customer, but it can be difficult.

The problem for large companies like Vodacom is that they have people talking about them constantly. From blog posts to social media, there is a constant buzz streaming online. Now you can either have a good stream or a bad one, but you don't get to opt out of online reputation management.

My advice to companies like Vodacom: give your customers what they want and you won’t see the vast amount of complaints online.