How not to handle customer service, the Philly Car Share way.

Philly Car Share is a non-profit car sharing service that operates throughout Philadelphia; seems obvious by the name, really. Either way, there’s a blue Mazda 3 in a PCS pod that I pass by when I’m in the city, and I noticed yesterday morning when I drove by that someone left the lights on in it. When I drove past it again on my way home from work, I noticed the lights were still on, but this time almost completely out, which meant they were draining the battery and would soon be dead.

When I passed by it again today, the lights were out completely. I walked up to the car to look at the light switch stalk, and it was still set to on, which means no one had used it and the battery was completely drained. Trying to help out, I called 411, got the number for PCS, and gave them a call to let them know.

I was greeted by a series of menu options. The two that were relevant to me were as follows:

Or if you are a member experiencing an emergency, please press 1. [..]
To speak with an associate, please press 3.

Since I wasn’t a member and just wanted to speak to someone (and pressing 0 repeatedly didn’t jump dump me to an operator like on most systems), I hit 3. Shortly thereafter I was transferred to a rep who asked me for my membership ID. I told her that I wasn’t a member, but I saw a PCS car that was now surely dead, and I wanted to let them know.

Instead of thanking me or trying to get any information from me, the woman on the other end said, “Yeah, that’s an emergency, try pressing 1, then listen.” I was then promptly dumped back to the main menu.

Upon pressing 1, I heard another menu. After listening to that, I got to another rep who immediately demanded a membership ID number. I told I wasn’t a member, gave her the location of the car and that it had to be dead at this point. Instead of saying thank you, she asked for the license plate info. I said, “I don’t know, I didn’t write it down…do you want me to go back and get it?” She gave me an attitude, then told me not to bother, because it was the only car at that location. Then she hung up on me.

I’m not saying that I wanted a damned key to the city for calling in a dead car, but I potentially saved someone a lot of trouble by letting them know preemptively that the car was not in a usable state. A simple “thank you, sir” would have gone a long way. Instead, I was berated for apparently making the wrong choice on the decision tree.

Here are some ways that they could have made this experience better:

1. Change the tree options. I’m not a member and I’m not experiencing an emergency, so why would I go to that decision first? My goal is to speak to a rep first & foremost, who can either direct me to the proper department, or take the information from me.
2. If a general operator isn’t available, train your reps to transfer misdirected callers in a courteous, respectful manner. Most people would have hung up after the first rude rep dumped them.
3. Offer a hotline number solely for problems with the car. Put the number on the car itself, so strangers who see a vandalized/dead/damaged car can easily call without dialing 411 or needing to look up the number online.
4. Don’t berate non-members for not having all the data. I know, even as a non-member, that the cars are assigned to pods, and I know they can look up a car based on the location of the pod. Therefore, the location & the make and model of the car is all the needed data. Don’t insult the caller for not having a license plate number available if they gave you other datapoints that are necessary for identification. What if the vehicle was damaged, making the plate unreadable? What if the plate was stolen?

Following any number of these suggestions would have likely made for a better experience. But when you insult the Good Samaritans, you do yourself a world of trouble. Remember, it’s the people who experience bad customer service who are likely to talk about it. After all, I took the time to type this out, I surely wouldn’t have done a similar-lengthed article to talk about a normal transaction.

So to sum up, I’m not a member of their service, and you can rest assured that I won’t ever be now.