Warren Buffett famously said, “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” The way that a company engages with its customers often determines its success. Some fall victim to corporate greed, often foregoing customer satisfaction in their relentless pursuit of profits, while others understand that business success is driven by customer happiness.
At Billshark, we believe in exceeding customer expectations. Our team understands a consumer's ultimate frustration: rising costs and almost non-existent customer service. Our goal is to put the consumer first and ensure that their user experience is fast, seamless, and completely transparent.
Billshark's goal, to ensure excellent customer service to each of our customers, is our priority. Customers can interact with Billshark through a variety of channels but we filter all communications through one seamless platform. This ensures that we don't miss a single issue or question, regardless of the platform a customer used to contact us. In other words, we will always get the message.
Once our customer satisfaction team receives a communication, we address it within two hours. And, we are very proud to share that 98% of the time, we resolve an issue within 24 hours. This is why we have consistently excellent reviews on a multitude of online platforms including Better Business Bureau, iTunes.
But even a consumer-focused company can hit some rough waters. Our steadfast commitment to customer satisfaction means that we have to address every concern, especially if a user's experience is not as smooth as we intended.
After carefully analyzing the data, we've identified some of our customers' concerns, and how we resolve them.
Too many emails/communications
Most of our customers appreciate our level of communication from the very beginning of a transaction, but some customers claim that it's excessive. Although we believe that more information is always better, we are embarking on a project to evaluate our current communications protocol and see where we can make improvements.
No mention of fee on partner sites
We work very closely with our partners to review their implementation of our platform. When we find that there is cause for customer complaint, or that implementation did not go according to plan, we work directly with our partner to improve and make necessary changes.
Customer believed the service was free
Some customers told us that they were unaware that there is a fee for our service. Billshark believes in complete transparency, so we clearly state the pricing of our service in three distinct places on the website and mobile app. Furthermore, we reiterate it again prior to the completion of the enrollment process and once more in a welcome email. We also offer a 24- hour cancellation process if the customer discovers that the service is not what they expected.
Fee is too high and/or customer is unaware that it's for 24 months
Our pricing is very competitive in the current marketplace. Although we know that there will always be some customers who believe the pricing is too high, our goal is to be completely transparent with our pricing upfront, so that customers can always make an informed decision.
Provider makes an error
Although rare, sometimes a provider implements an unrequested change or does not apply the agreed-upon savings to a customer's account. In these cases, the customer should notify the Billshark team immediately and we will resolve it promptly. A Shark will go back to the provider right away to make sure that the customer's bill reflects only requested changes (if any) and negotiated savings.
Customer negotiated a better rate
If the customer can show that they were able to get savings on top of what Billshark already negotiated, we will adjust or refund the customer's invoice.
Savings achieved were not sufficient
When a customer complains that the savings were not enough, Billshark has a a supervisor review the claim. If there is reason to believe that better savings could have been achieved, the supervisor will attempt to re-negotiate on the customer's behalf.
Customer expects unpublished savings
The Sharks have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. Our inside knowledge of the industry gives us an edge when negotiating bigger savings. However, customers often expect the Sharks to secure “unpublished” savings. Although we certainly have achieved such results, customers should understand that this is not the norm. One thing we do know, if the Sharks can't find the savings, it's not likely that anyone else can.
Customer believes they could have achieved the same resultson their own
Our service is not intended for people who want to take the time to negotiate their own bills. We have the talent and the experience to do it better and faster. In fact, we find that while customers can absolutely get some savings on their own if they're willing to put in the time, our Sharks will improve the savings on most previously negotiated bills.
Customer didn't agree to the savings in advance
Billshark's goal is to get the most savings we possibly can for the consumer. In fact, our own success depends on it. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that a negotiated rate will still be available if we take the time to gain preliminary approval from the customer. Therefore, we try to be as transparent as possible from the beginning, so that our customers know that we're negotiating the best rate out there.
In a climate of declining customer service, our goal is to have happy, satisfied customers. By saving consumers time and money and by creating a seamless, transparent user experience, we try to live up to the high standards we set for our customer service. We know that happy customers means a very happy company.