America Online is getting plenty of negative buzz because one of its customers, Vincent Ferrari, recorded an amazing phone conversation with an AOL customer service representative who repeatedly ignored and argued with Ferrari's attempts to cancel his AOL account. Although AOL fired the employee and said he "violated our service guidelines and practices," The Consumerist website reports, "A plain manilla envelope arrived on our desk... Inside was the eighty-one page 'Enhanced Sales Training for AOL Retention Consultants' manual which showed that in fact 'Customer Service John' was following orders. The manual instructs employees that 'every member that calls in to cancel their accounts is a hot lead' and are instructed to 'retain control by redirecting the Member if necessary.'"
Companies like AOL that try to hang onto customers who want to say good-bye may maximize short-run profits at the expense of doing long-run damage to their reputations. On this topic, I highly recommend Fred Reichheld's The Ultimate Question which explains the true cost of "bad profits" when companies put their interests ahead of their customers'. He convincingly demonstrates that an obsession with short-term earnings burn out employees and alienate customerse as the case of the AOL customer trying to cancel his account aptly illustrates.
