Customer service – a dying art?

Or really, any sort of service at all, since offering a ‘free’ issue of a newsletter for assessment doesn’t really make me a customer, since I’ve not bought a product yet….

Ah, the joys of LexisNexis! They must be getting desperate for business indeed, if their new tactics are anything to go by.
I was called up a few weeks ago by a woman. I don’t know who, she never gave her name. She asked me if I would like a free sample issue of their relaunched “Tolley’s Employment Law Newsletter”. As thats an area we cover, I said yes, but also that it was hugely unlikely we’d take out a subscription of any sort. She said that was fine, but went on to make a HUGE point of the fact that, I HAD to reply to the email she would be sending me within 30 days. I had no idea what the email content would be, it would be made clear in the email, but I HAD to reply to it. I said no problem, and calendared it in as I was talking to her. She had me spell out my email address, letter by letter, so there was no confusion over it.
Then she said that I “might” get an invoice, but it was ok, I could ignore it, as long as I replied to the email to confirm whatever this mystical email wanted me to confirm, I assume my refusal of a subscription, since she was now mentioning invoices.
She said was going to email me right that second, and remember, it is absolutely ESSENTIAL that I reply to that email.
Needless to say, the email didn’t arrive…but days later, the Newsletter did. Now, without this email I can’t cancel this non-subscription that I don’t have…yet also, they have no evidence of any sort of request from me to receive this sample issue…I wonder how this is all going to work out?
I contacted the customer service email on the website as soon as the issue arrived on the 24th August (which reminded me the email from Phonecall Woman had never arrived), and told them I had received a sample copy, had no intention of taking out a subscription, had been left with no contact details for the woman who called and no email to reply to to confirm I didn’t want a subscription, they could regard this as my statement that I did not want a subscription to the Newsletter, and forward this to the appropriate department to deal with.
I got no reply or acknowledgement from customer service, no contact of any sort. Now, the date I put in the calendar for reply (at the very latest) to that non-existent email is the 17th September…lets see what happens, shall we? Invoicing for a non-requested, non-existent subscription?
Fun and games with publishers. *sigh*

West librarian email update

Information Overlord kindly pointed me towards Wests reply to the staggeringly badly thought out “Librarian name” marketing email.

Wisely, they’ve put their hands up and confessed to being *rses, and apologised. A good response, but why did a massive (I believe, I’m not overinformed on the US legal information suppliers marekt) company whose focus is on supplying information to legal and information professionals, ever think that it would be ok to insult the best informed sector of their users?
And who authorised that email going out? Did they look at it and go “Yup, that’s just the tone we want to set!”
Apparently, it “won’t happen again”. I’m just surprised that it happened at all.

How to insult your users

Well, West (the American parent of our UK Westlaw) seem just about ready to start giving classes in “simultaneously patronising and insulting some of your core users”.

Sarah Glassmeyer posted this screenshot to Twitpic of a West email to its users.
Shall I explain why I find this to be hugely insulting? Well…. do West understand who the biggest users / on site trainers / troubleshooters / BUYERS of its products are? Have they ever actually met a librarian, or do they still think all librarians wear half-moon glasses / twinsets / pearls / sensible shoes / their hair in buns? I suppose we should be grateful they didn’t throw in a clipart library matron, or something about keeping te noise down too. And do they really think it’s a good idea to imply that knowing a colleagues name in another department, who’s there to do expert research work to save that fee earner valuable time, is beneath the dignity of a fee earner?
Sigh.
*Written by the librarian who has short hair, no glasses, no pearls, twinsets or other librarian clothing, and who has never told anyone to shhhh in her life. And whose colleagues DO know her first name, cos, y’know, I’m a real person, and it’s my job to do the research work*