Several years ago, I worked briefly at this computer store. The owner would change the terms of service at least once a week, if not more. When I left there the Terms of Service was very fine print on the back of every receipt. The receipt was printed on an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper.

This is nothing unusual. Every business has literature that states where their responsibly starts and where the customer’s responsible begins.

Any business that wants to survive has to have excellent customer focus. A Customer who is upset or unhappy will move on to use another service or product. Today, I thought I would list some of the major businesses used in the Treasure Valley and what they say customers should expect of them.

Clear (wireless internet provider) Download speeds of 3 to 6 Mbps with upload speeds up to 1 Mbps. They say “Actual CLEAR network performance may vary and is not guaranteed.”

Godaddy.com domain and web hosting company promises 99.9% uptime commitment, round-the-clock support. So if you have a website hosted by them your website will be down at the most 8 hours and 45 minutes in one year.

Idaho Power – On their website, I could not find anything that states quality of service to be expected. I did find service area Idaho Power covers. This can be understood considering the unexpected nature of natural disasters.

T-Mobile, one of the top three cell phone providers, definitely states, “Outages and interruptions in Service may occur, and speed of Service varies.  You agree we are not liable for problems relating to Service availability or quality.”

I have just listed four major businesses who with their lack of or poor service would be a major inconvenience; costing time and money. Now before calling them an telling them what rotten service you are getting take a deep breath and count to 10. Then do the following three steps.

1. Remember the person you will be talking to most likely did not cause the problem. He or she is unaware that you have a problem until you called. Being polite and armed with facts will get you a lot further than pure emotion.

2. If you are calling about your cell phone, be off that cell phone. If you are calling about your computer or internet connection, be in front of your computer. This will get the issue resolved faster. They will want you to go through some basic troubleshooting steps to find the root cause of the problem.

3. Don’t call after 8 pm or before 8 am. A lot of customer service calls centers are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, computer and electronic systems do need to have some time to update. Most businesses do this late at night. You will get more accomplished calling during daylight hours on a weekday.

Tell me what you expect from a business and how you deal with that business when your expectation is not met?

Tags: Clear, Customer Service, Godaddy, Idaho Power, T-Mobile, Up Time