I recently received a message from this software provider that my license was about to expire and would I like to renew now or later. This was very friendly and very professional message. When I finally opted to renew the software license things initially flowed smoothly. I followed the step-by-step instructions and let the “wizard” do the rest. Half way through the setup process don’t I get an error message which instructs me to contact technical support. Now the simple thing in my opinion would have been to include a toll free number in that message. After all they asked me to contact technical support. But as you guessed there was no number. So I proceeded to follow my intuition to try to contact customer service or technical support. I went and opened the Norton Protection Center to see if I could find a link to customer service and voila I found it. Unfortunately there still was no telephone number. Instead I was faced with several links and an FAQ section. I also saw an option to talk with a live person via the internet (Live Person). Unfortunately for me I am not using Internet Explorer 5.5 which apparently is the only web browser that will support Live Person. I proceeded to check out the FAQ section to see if others had encountered a similar problem to mine and how was it resolved. I saw a link that came close and downloaded what I thought would be a quick fix. Needless to say that didn’t work.

Fifteen minutes later I finally found a number to call. The same number they could have programmed into the error message that greeted me while trying to install an upgrade. You know what happened next. I spent 5 minutes talking with a computer answering questions including putting in my order number. I finally received a tech support person in India and the first thing he asked me for was my order number. Did’t I just key it into the phone.

Now I know that India has received some bad press lately about tech support and how many reps are encouraged to take on US names like Harry and Jane but I’m happy to report that my tech support guy was good and kept his birth name. The bad side to this story is it took him almost 45 minutes to help me fix the problem. In all I spent well over an hour of my time doing something that should probably have only taken 5 minutes.

Unfortunately this is not the first time I’ve had this experience with Norton. At the end of the day they offer a superior product and I will continue to be a customer of theirs but they should consider doing one of two things. Either fix the technical glitches which are causing the set-up error when upgrading a software package, or include the tech support number right in the error message when it does pop up.

Unfortunately O’Hare has been know to have it’s share of problems. 9:17pm rolls around and nothing! Finally at 10:05pm we board our flight only to be ushered off 10 minutes later because a “security sweep” had not been conducted. Now in all my years of flying I had never heard that excuse. Five minutes after disembarking from the plane didn’t they announce that the crew had gone over their limit and could no longer fly! That’s when the fun really began. I will spare you all the details but suffice it to say the flight was canceled, no hotels were available in the immediate vicinity, United gate agents were not the most responsive, and yours truly along with 12 other people wound up sleeping the night inside the airport, something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

When I got back I decided to follow United protocol and filed a complaint with customer service on the United web site. That was Monday (June 18th). Today is Friday, June 22nd and I still haven’t heard back. Thank God I also emailed the CEO of United. That’s right, a small business owner wrote a polite and professional email to Glenn Tilton (CEO of United) and wouldn’t you know it yesterday I received a call from his office letting me know how sorry they were about my experience. While it was not my intention to complain to them in hopes of receiving some kind of compensation for my pain and suffering they offered me a United flight certificate for a future flight.

This is a tale of two stories regarding customer service. Had I only sent my complaint to United customer service I would still be waiting and my views of this airline would have gone from bad to worse. Thankfully senior management does take the customers voice serious and they acted. That said most people would not have contacted the CEO office either because they wouldn’t know how or because they would be too intimidated.

I think it’s unfortunate that United customer service has been so slow to react to my complaint. It will be interesting to see if I still hear from them after having spoken with the executive office of United.

In business development we find ourselves often looking from the outside in, and what we initially see makes us believe that what we are offering might be a good match for that company. So we do the natural thing and reach out to them. We are always careful to be polite in our follow-up, and leave them many outs (voice mail, email) if they don’t want to speak with us directly especially if there is no interest on their part.

I realize that we live in a world where time is a precious commodity, however, how much effort does it take to let someone know you are not interested in their services. People’s actions or inactions in this case can speak volumes about a company.