When giving customer service, think about customer satisfaction too

Quote from Ali Scarlett on May 15, 2023, 8:14 pm

Like Lucio, I've also been looking into several courses on copywriting lately.

One I took an interest in was the 10x Launches course by Copy School (Copyhackers).

I bought it, but upon taking it, realized that the communication in their copywriting didn't align with how I wanted to talk to my audience/email list.

So, I asked for a refund:

Then, I had to chase them for eleven days with no response.

So, on that eleventh day, I searched for the CEO of the company's email address and CC'd her on it too. (Now, she can see that her customer support team has been neglecting a paying customer for days on end.)

I was expecting her to crack down on her customer service team because the marketing on her website was all about her caring so much about her students/customers and having this awesome, easy refund policy.

What I wasn't expecting was for her to care as little as they did:

She says they were out of the office (OOO) which feels like an excuse because it implied that, without giving any warning to anyone, they all just stopped providing customer service altogether for eleven days straight.

Plus, there was no apology for how they'd wasted so much of my time making me chase them for some assistance.

And, on top of that, the refund wasn't processed that day.

So, five days later, I finally get the refund. But, I also get a notification saying that they plan to charge my card again for that same course.

So, I address it in that email to her you see above.

And, once again, there's no response. This time, for fourteen days.

So, I go assertive and include the silver medal technique with my response as well:

Joanna,

From what I’m seeing, I like you and your products, but I must admit, you're losing a few points with me for the poor customer service at the moment.

Your system is still trying to charge my card.

Whether you handle this now or later, I like your work and have good things to say about it. But I expect caringness from the people I deal with. So, please be more caring, and you will gain a long-term customer.

- Ali

[Attaches the "upcoming charge" email notification below.]

Without even looking into it first, Joanna says:

And because she didn't look into it, I now have to chase her for two more days to get more help to resolve this:

[Apr 30, 2023, 9:37 AM]

Hi Joanna,

Thank you for the prompt response.

It's more than that email message though, I got a notification from my bank this morning as well saying that Copy Hackers tried to process a payment that was declined and will try again tomorrow.

- Ali

[May 1, 2023, 9:47 AM]

Received another notification from my bank that another charge attempt occurred this morning.

Also confirmed that the subscription is still listed as active in my account:

[Attached screenshot of account subscription status]

- Ali

At this point, Joanna responds with this:

Over this entire issue that's now spanned over 30+ days, support hasn't done or said anything to help resolve the situation.

And before giving any apologies for the situation, empathizing, or offering to make up for it in any way, she focuses on ordering me to continue CC'ing the support email.

At this point, it felt like she was so out of touch with the main priority here (keeping the customer happy before he leaves forever), it actually rubbed me the wrong way. As if now the customer's feelings and satisfaction don't actually matter.

Oddly enough, the customer support team's email was kinder than the CEO's:

Hi Ali,

Sorry for the subscription reminder emails that you received, we have checked your account and have made sure that everything has been cancelled and refunded. You will not be receiving any other subscription renewal emails.

Thanks for checking us out, and we're sorry our customer service wasn't up to our usual standards. We take all feedback seriously and appreciate your willingness to share.

Have a great rest of your week.

[Name redacted for privacy]

---

Some of the communication in their copywriting didn't feel very eagle-like. And I wasn't surprised to see some of those same mistakes in their customer service too.

This may become part of a longer review of Copy School (Copyhackers).