I forget, as to who was the Hollywood mogul who once said,” Sincerity is the key, baby, if you can fake that, you have it made !”

Many organizations seem to have this approach when it comes to satisfying and servicing their customers.
Talk politely at all times to customers who call, humor them, dawdle, tarry and worse befuddle. But at all times, we must seem to be sincere, even if we haven’t the faintest clue on how to resolve the problem, seems to be the credo!

A recent example, a colleague’s tryst with Vodafone comes to mind.
A complaint was logged in, citing poor network coverage at her home. Post logging in  the complaint and going public on  Twitter, there was a flurry of  what seemed like activity from Vodafone, reps ( 6 different reps),  calling ( last count  25 different interactions !)
Each time, she would be politely requested by the Vodafone caller to recount the complaint, history of her interaction to date with Vodafone on the said complaint and to add insult to injury her subscriber details!
And each time, the Vodafone rep would hear her out in rapt attention and seemingly great concern.
Now 20 days and many heated calls, angry escalation emails and bitter tweets from the consumer, Vodafone has agreed to send a tech support rep over to have a look.
But what does all this seeming concern with no resolution do for Customer satisfaction and Customer Experience? Does this not upset the customer even more?
Why would Vodafone invest in high voltage advertising, promising great network quality only to be different in reality?
Why build a perception that cannot be carried out on the ground, what does this say about the Service Design required to carry out what the Brand is promising when it communicates to its consumer.
Even though I have used the Vodafone case here to drive the point, numerous other organizations follow the same approach, call a call center with your complaint- you will be given a polite, patient hearing with seemingly great concern for your problem and as for a resolution? “Sorry Sir, my team will get in touch with you” and you wait and wait.

I find it hard to believe that faking Sincerity is easier than the real thing.