I detailed why the suckers are leaving in this article. Well it might be worse but what I think is most interesting is that it does not need to be. Let me give you two examples.

My Father basically represents every casual poker player there is, recently he had some trouble getting money off of a site. That is not what is the interesting part though. At the end of what he considered to be an ordeal (actually just a major inconvenience) he sent them an email saying that he thought his situation was treated poorly and he doubted that he would be playing on that particular site any longer. That of course is his prerogative but that did not need to be the end of his story.

I am a grizzled old vet of online poker. I understand that the circumstances have caused major inconveniences for the cardrooms. For me and the friends I know the most important thing is to play against bad players, sometimes the fact that money is a bit tough to move around actually can make the games a bit better (so can bad software but I digress). I was using epassporte which is no longer available. So when I was asked for my ID and a utility bill it annoyed me a bit that I would have to take a trip to Kinko’s but I get it, not a huge deal. The huge deal came in the tone of the response I got, or the lack of tone. Not only am I a great customer if you define great customer by someone who starts games and keeps games going but I actively refer people to rooms where the games are good. I can not imagine that card rooms would want anything more than I can provide them as a customer. So while I will trekked to Kinko’s all I could think about was how unhappy it made me to have to do this.

The two scenarios are tied to each other in the fact that the customer service departments of online poker rooms are making enemies when they could simply just say “you are right”. That is all my dad wanted and all I wanted was someone to recognize that what I was going to have to do is a bit of a hassle. Now I get it, these people’s jobs are not easy and I work with a lot of people on their customer service systems but something is very wrong when customer service departments are picking fights with customers either intentionally or unintentionally. Let me give you an example of a sample letter that I bet they get a lot:

“I could not be more upset, after numerous faxes and emails I have finally gotten things resolved and to be honest I do not think I will be playing at your room any longer. The way I have been treated has been poor and I can not believe you can run a business the way you are.”

Trust me, I am a consultant that deals with customer service, that is about as nice as they come. So you can imagine they get a lot harsher but even with that said there really is only one acceptable response. Here is an example of what that response should be:

“I am looking over your file and it does appear you have been inconvenienced in a major way. That is a short coming of our current situation. At this point excuses are of no value to you so I and XYZ poker room will not be giving you one. I will speak for both myself and XYZ in saying that you are right. No one should have to go to the lengths you have. I completely understand why you are making the decision you are and I would like to say personally that I am sorry. Both XYZ and myself failed you Mr. Customer.”

Do not ask for their business because that takes away from the sincerity of the situation. When you let people down you might want to consider whether or not you want to further continue brooming them, after all, if you were in their situation would you not have similar feelings and emotions?

I am not picking on Customer Service representatives because they have a thankless job. I am picking on the company owners that barely know their Customer Service managers and certainly do not answer incoming emails. They should, because I do not think they have any idea how their customers are being talked to. When they built the business they are in they likely could not have envisioned the success they have achieved in such a short time. They did dream once though and in that dream they likely did not figure that their extreme growth would cause them to let down customers so acutely.

Let me make this clear. The customer service departments at these companies are not at fault it is the leaders of these companies that are absent and negligent. It is time to quit the excuses on why you can not do something. No one is to blame, not the UIEGA, not payment processors. So coming in with an iron fist approach will not work. You will need to profoundly change the environment that these people are working under. All people want and expect is someone that seems to care and right now no one seems to care at all.