Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

Why Richard Branson prank-called his own company to speak with Richard Branson

Here’s some smart advice for your company from the billionaire.

AS CHAIR OF the massive Virgin Group, Richard Branson can’t possibly stay on top of everything going on at each of his companies, which include airlines, a mobile service provider, and an upcoming hotel chain.

But to ensure that his customer service employees are maintaining his vision for the company, he sometimes reaches out to customers or pretends to be a customer himself, he explains in his new book The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership.

One time, he writes, he even tried masking his voice on a customer service call to one of his companies, demanding to be put in touch with — who else? — Richard Branson. He writes:

I am so pathetically bad at imitating someone else’s voice that Penni, my trusted assistant for many years, sat there and let me make a complete fool of myself with some trumped-up complaint before saying, “Well, thank you so much for sharing all that with me, sir. Let me see if Mr. Branson is available to take your call.”
She then kept me hanging on for what seemed like an eternity — it was probably a couple of minutes — before coming back on the line to say, “Sorry, Richard, but you appear to be out of the office at the moment, can someone else help you?” before dissolving into howls of laughter.

While he tells the story for a laugh, Branson makes a valuable point. Whether you’re an executive at a major corporation or the founder of a startup or SME, you should never get so caught up in management and business strategy that you forget that you’re providing a product or service for the benefit of customers.

To that end, it’s not a bad idea to occasionally check up on your customer service staff by giving them a call and seeing how they handle your questions.

Start by going to your company’s website, Branson says:

So when you’re playing customer, one of the first things to do is to try and locate a phone number to call on your website that will enable you to get through to a real human being. If you can find the number — most organisations foolishly bury a contact number in some deep dark corner of the website after “Contact Us” has led you nowhere except back to the webpage you started on — try calling it and count how many recorded options, pre-screens and hand-offs you are forced through before you (perhaps) get to a real person.

If they handle your problem well, consider identifying yourself as the boss, he says, and praise them for their efforts. And if the experience is a nightmare, consider contacting their supervisor and explaining that they’ll need to address the issue with their team.

Branson says he used to regularly cold call Virgin Atlantic business-class customers to ask about their experience.

He also writes down observations about his own experiences as a Virgin customer, such as when he noted that he and fellow Virgin America passengers didn’t want a hot towel offered to them on a scorching Las Vegas day. He took that bit to management and had the policy changed and now cold towels are offered on hot days.

Branson writes that in his many years of business experience, he has found that unhappy customers who have a problem handled quickly and effectively end up being more loyal than if they never had a problem at all.

-Richard Feloni

More: Sure the ping pong is fun, but IT staff also want to do good work

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Published with permission from
View 8 comments
Close
8 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Brennan
    Favourite Brendan Brennan
    Report
    Nov 5th 2020, 10:40 PM

    I seen Barnardos run a fantastic online safety programme for kids. They do it with schools and with parents, which I believe parents need to know more about this also. Here’s a link to it on their website…. http://www.barnardos.ie/osp

    52
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Billy
    Favourite Billy
    Report
    Nov 6th 2020, 3:58 AM

    The Journal is one to talk about cyberbullying. If someone disagrees with you here they can call you every name under the sun, as long as their views are ‘liberal’. I’ve seen people here wish death on others for not wearing a face mask or for perceived ‘racism’ and getting hundreds of likes.

    40
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mark Walsh
    Favourite Mark Walsh
    Report
    Nov 6th 2020, 6:59 AM

    @Billy: You’re spot on Billy, people just come here to abuse people, I’m sure of it. There is no way they would open their mouths in the street. Children aren’t learning Online Bullying from themselves.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute thesaltyurchin
    Favourite thesaltyurchin
    Report
    Nov 6th 2020, 1:27 PM

    @Billy: Right or left it’s all just shouting into the back of digital cupboard, the type of country we’re building is one of chips on shoulders, resent everyone, sue where you can, blame game, remember when the ‘Irish were a friendly, welcoming people?’ well that is clearly not what the majority of us want anymore.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Amiga Ireland
    Favourite Amiga Ireland
    Report
    Nov 5th 2020, 10:52 PM

    Bullying can be absolutely crushing and even moreso when the victim doesn’t have solid support at home and among other friends. Parents aren’t familiar with each other like we used to be. Devices create even more opportunities for bullys where the victims most private spaces at home are no longer a sanctuary.

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute WCS
    Favourite WCS
    Report
    Nov 5th 2020, 10:40 PM

    Cyber everything increased during lockdown

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Vanessa
    Favourite Vanessa
    Report
    Nov 5th 2020, 11:10 PM

    Just sad to see that the bullying rates of the reviewed countries are the highest over here.

    I’m just wondering if parents are aware what their children doing online.

    20
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Connell
    Favourite David Connell
    Report
    Nov 6th 2020, 12:46 AM

    Just block them or take the phones off the kids.

    26
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute hasnooneasked
    Favourite hasnooneasked
    Report
    Nov 6th 2020, 3:15 AM

    Why does it take Facebook so long to remove hateful and vile comments and videos. What is wrong with them and when you do report something that goes against community standards they than tell you it doesnt. So a video of someone being hateful and using absolute obscene laungauge to another person and being a bully seems to be ok in FB eyes

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute thesaltyurchin
    Favourite thesaltyurchin
    Report
    Nov 6th 2020, 1:27 PM

    Feel the hate.

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds