A big Marketing Hall of Shame award goes to the customer service rep at ComputerShare who told me this morning that she couldn’t help me–as soon as I got on the phone.

“How do you know you can’t help me, before you know what it is I need done?” I asked. “How about if I tell you what I need and THEN you tell me whether or not you can help me.

Lo and behold, two of the three issues I had she was able to help me with immediately. Imagine that! (On the third, she left me on interminal hold so I eventually hung up.)

What good does it do to jump to conclusions before finding out what the customer really is looking for to start?

In cases like this, “customer service rep” doesn’t really fit. It should be “customer disservice department.”