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Bold Business Works Monthly Newsletter
December 2016
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I love the holidays, especially in New York City.
As a nice Jewish girl, I know I'm not supposed to admit I love the Christmas traditions, but I am a sucker for decorations, holiday music and movies.
(Favorite holiday movies: It's A Wonderful Life, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, How the Grinch Stole Christmas )
With so much purchasing this season, I'm focusing this month on excellent customer service, lessons for all businesses.
Happy New Year!
Deborah
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The Real Miracle on 34th Street?
I worked in retail early in my career and when I watch the classic movie "Miracle on 34th Street" I find the most remarkable thing is that the sales people at Macy's send customers across the street to Gimbel's when they didn't have the correct item. Outstanding customer service is a real miracle. Do you read The Haggler in the New York Times? Every week you hear about new problems across a wide variety of businesses. Recently I have had two extraordinary customer service experiences (unfortunately balanced with two rather substandard experiences.)
First the two good ones:
My Fitbit (wrist fitness tracker) started coming loose from its strap after less than one year. So I emailed the company a photo of the damage and they sent me a brand new one. We also have a Canary, a remote security device and after a power outage at our country home, it would not reboot. I was emailed very clear instructions for fixing it...but they didn't bring it back to life. Two simple email exchanges and they authorized a replacement unit.
Both of these companies have earned my undying loyalty. I am an unofficial evangelist for both brands because they stood behind their product and handled problems quickly and effectively.
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The bad experiences: the above mentioned power outage was really annoying--mostly because of the terrible way that our power company, NYSEG handled it. Theoretically their website was supposed to keep us apprised of when we were getting our power back---but it was obvious that they had no idea! At one point they took us off the outage list because they thought (erroneously) that our power was restored.
And our Samsung washer recall was another fiasco: they send out a contract repair company, but ONLY after they send you the part via UPS. And then they won't do the service on the weekends. I'll let you know if we ever really get it repaired.
Oh and I'll add the Post Office to this list: how on earth can it be so badly run? My only conclusion is that you can get away with atrocious customer service when your clients don't really have much in the way of an alternative.
Remember, your clients nearly always have alternatives, so you better make sure you are offering extraordinary customer service. Get people talking about your brand...in a good way!
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