Customer Service - Answer the question

Below is an email response to an inquiry I made on 20th December with Virgin Broadband. A week later the following response was received:

Hey Mark

Thanks for getting in touch with us.

I would ask that you reply to telesales@virginmobile.com.au and we will be more than happy to help you and advise you of the options available and answer your questions.

Please leave your contact number, time and date so we can get back to you.

We are available from Monday to Friday 8.30am - 8pm and the weekend from 10am – 6pm. You can also call the Sales Team on 133323.

Looking forward to your reply.

Regards,

XXXXX

Virgin Mobile Team

So my response was duh is this company stupid or something!

Can't they forward my email to telesales@virginmobile.com.au to answer my questions directly.

The impression that I am left with is one of a company which is not customer focussed.

I probably wouldn't have minded if they had responded promptly with the email but taking over a week to send a non response is just poor customer relations.

So the end result is that I have added Virgin broadband to the Telstra (in Australia) and Telecom (in New Zealand) list of companies to avoid dealing with if at all possible.

So what lessons can we take from this:

• Respond to emails promptly
• If you can't answer the question immediately send an interim email indicating when they can expect a reply
• Don't send an email to a customer telling them to send an email to another address within the same company.
• Ideally answer the question fully via the communication method chosen by the customer.