I had a bit of a strange conversation tonight with a friend of mine who is working for Globe, the internet service provider I complained about that they are hacking websites. And the strange thing to me is that he is defending his company and kind of implicitly states that he doesn’t care about me. And I am a bit confused, as I guess he knows that I have the technical knowledge to figure out what is going on and that indeed Globe is the party inserting scripts into websites where they are supposed to only provide the internet highway, as also my friend confirms they are supposed to do.
So we talked a bit further and I asked him why he is working with Globe, why he is with his current job, also implying a bit like ‘who would want to work for a company doing things like this’, although I’m not fully sure if he got that. And then he mentioned the culture and the benefit Globe gives to their employees.
So this whole conversation made me think, as it completely seems to go against what Napoleon Hill stands for, something like ‘the customer comes first’, service comes first. As with Globe apparently the employees come first, not the customer, as my friend even stated that my internet connection will not survive long anymore ‘as when the access point is getting full, you’ll lose your connection’ and ‘your connection should have never been installed’. But as a customer I feel completely lost with these statements, as my previous, old technology connection worked for a long time, ‘until the access point was full’ and Globe decided to end the service without even noticing our company, even an internet company. And right now we are using a ‘new technology’ connection that is working very reliable and fast. So it is working and can work. So why scare me and why let go of me where I think I am a very loyal customer.
And yes, I know it’s partly the culture, Philippine culture. And maybe I don’t understand business that well and maybe I am alone with not understanding why you would piss off a ‘life time type’ customer. But yes, I am very pissed with all this, especially as all the advertisements of Globe state that ‘the customer comes first’ or at least that is what I understand. But somehow they are not practicing this and it really scares me that they would just let go of me where they have been able to service our location for a long, long time very well, whether out of their procedures or technical limits or whatever.
So how come that these companies thrive and that I can barely make a living by trying to serve my customers the best I can. Should I also just kick out customers that are not profitable, even though they depend on me?
I don’t think so, but I am more and more amazed how the world works in 2014, not really serving customers, but more scaring them.
Or am I just alone with this? Am I really that special?