Inspired by my experience (miserable one) as a customer of IWG and most companies these days.

Lately, I was watching/re-watching The Office (US). Yes, it’s a comedy show, but it’s still set in a sort of real world with real issues, problems, and ideas. And in the show, when the salespeople of Dunder Mifflin travel to the potential client (or existing) and want to close a deal, they quite often use a phrase:

With us you’ll get our full attention and exceptional customer support!

Ok, probably most salespeople say that. But it’s a good sales point – next to the main product you sell, offer the customer service that’s better than anyone else can offer.

I think I know what they mean. I used to be a “user” of such customer support services. We used to have more of them when support was more personal and more accessible. Maybe just because we had to call and have a human conversation with the representative. Of course, we had negative experiences, but the mindset of customer support used to be different – it used to be an extension of the main product. It used to target potential gaps and pitfalls in the core product, solve edge cases, and take care of the customer. It used to be an extra “human” interface to the core product.

Then we started saving money. E-mails, tickets, extensive FAQs, “if – then” chatbots, and now AI.

These days, getting to talk to a human feels refreshing. Once you have a question, you first need to do a series of quests to be granted access to a human being. Send this here, show that there, chat about something else here: “Did this solve your problem or do you need further assistance?”…. Yes, I do need further assistance!

But the mindset of human help and support has also changed. People on the other end of the line these days are siloed, protected, and hidden. If you get to them, they know that “you are a problem” as nothing before (docs, FAQs, AI bot) could help you, so now you are going to “ruin their day”.

Lately, due to personal circumstances, I had to interact with many new services and had multiple issues, questions, etc. – I had to interact with customer support. And the predominant mindset I felt was that I always needed to “excuse” myself, defend my problem, plead, and really try my best to “fit” into the customer support employee expectations. Rarely (almost never) did I have a person who would CARE. Who would genuinely try to see this from my perspective, start thinking along with me, and work with me on the case? Who would actually try to make my day a bit better, given that the shortcomings of the core product made it worse.

IWG – Yes, I’m calling them out directly because I’m stunned by the level of service this company provides. I experience rudeness, cluelessness, and absolute disregard for customer needs, while still expecting the customer to bend in any direction and adhere to every line of the signed contracts, regardless of the value the customer experiences. I reserve the possibility that others might have had better luck than I did.

This wave of customer support experience kept bringing me back to the Dunder Mifflin sales pitch…

…you’ll get our full attention and exceptional customer support…

This made me think that, actually, today you can probably win growth by just improving customer support. You can offer the same core product like many other companies do, but bring back humans who care. Create a better culture and mindset. Make sure your customer support is not a moat, but a bridge that keeps delivering positive value to your customers. Don’t hide behind an AI assistant, don’t hide behind walls of FAQs – give me a person who would go down into the “trenches” with me and solve that “incorrect account number” while being positive, informative, supportive.

I would switch multiple services if I knew that I had a “partner” when I need help.