Are Your Customers Happy?
Every business has issues with customer service. Let’s face it, things don’t always work perfectly and sometimes a customer is going to feel wronged. When a mistake has been made, there are only two possible outcomes in my opinion. The customer will either be happy with your response and feel good about his/her relationship with your business, or the customer will be upset with your response and you will risk not only losing their business, but the wrath of their negative comments either via word of mouth, or these days online. How you handle your customer service issues has a direct effect on your profit! Never assume that you can afford to lose a customer over a reasonable request because it is impossible to know the repercussions of doing so. We’ve all had issues as a customer. How did you feel when the company handled it properly? How did you feel when they did not? I recently had an experience with Amazon. I’ve been a loyal customer for many years, a Prime member, and I buy a majority of my books, and quite a few high ticket items from Amazon on a regular basis. Last week I purchased a PS3 since the next-gen DVD format war is over and my HD-DVD player will become outdated in the coming months and years. Well, the PS3 was supposed to come with a movie but alas it was not included. I emailed Amazon, but got a canned response that didn’t fit my problem. I then decided to call them and see about the issue over the phone. At first they wanted me to return the entire order and they would send out a replacement. The problem with that was I had already downloaded paid content from Sony so I could see what the system looked like - I had planned on watching the enclosed movie for this! So, at first I was basically just told “Sorry”. I then asked where I might file a complaint because I wanted them to know my exact thoughts on the issue. I wasn’t rude to the rep, and even told her I understood it may be a unique situation but I still felt like I was not being treated fairly. She then asked if I would accept a promotional credit of $30, which was the value of the movie. I said that would be fine, and I would be happy with it. So, within a few minutes she had applied the credit to my account for future purchases and turned a disappointed customer into a satisfied one. Not only was I satisfied with the outcome, I shared the story with a few friends, and the same night I used my $30 credit to purchase the blu-ray edition of BBC’s Planet Earth series, which is a $60 item. I think you can see how Amazon and I were both very satisfied with the outcome of what could have been a very disappointing experience. Would I have stayed a customer if nothing had been done? I can’t deny I would still buy books from them. But, I likely would have started using other merchants for my consumer electronic related purchases.
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