Being a good Manhattanite, I’m a ZipCar member/customer. Just had to call customer service because I had an outstanding balance (hey, it’s call “float” – learned this thanks to my fancy MBA).
Anyway, I just called the customer support line and a very friendly woman answered the phone and helped me quite quickly. Turns out she’s in North Sydney, Nova Scotia…. that’s in Canada folks. It was really a great customer service experience. When’s the last time you said that? Certainly, I don’t feel that way about most calls that are answered by outsource/offshored call centers. Last time I had a call with my bank or credit card company…miserable; tech support….forget it. But none of those was in Canada.
Now, I don’t know what they’re paying her up there, but I imagine it’s cheaper than the States and that’s why they’re doing it. And the experience was better than call centers in other offshore locales.
Canada, people, you heard it here first!
(Cross-posted @ The Village View)
I always feel like they are very friendly but totally unhelpful people on zipcar’s customer service line. Or they want to help, but they haven’t been empowered to do so.
I love the idea of car sharing, and I keep hoping that zipcar will work out, but it never does. I think the failure is that they place such a great emphasis on getting the message out, and getting good media, but when something goes wrong, customer service can’t help. They always offer plenty of apologies, and “we really wish we could help you but…”
I keep planning to get rid of my zipcard (which keeps breaking, and they charge you a replacement fee unless you go out of your way to visit their offices and prove to them it doesn’t work), but I keep hoping they’ll get better. It’s like sticking with an abusive boyfriend because he really cares about the environment and recycles every Wednesday.