Steve Ferrante's High Performance Blog for Sales/Customer Service/Leadership Champs and Progressive Professionals!

Posts tagged ‘Managing Customer Complaints’

How One Bad Customer Service Experience Can Damage Your Brand

I often speak about ‘the customers perception is your reality’ and how when a customer has a great experience with a company’s designated sales or customer service rep their perception of the company overall (their brand) is enhanced. Conversely, when a customer has a poor experience their overall perception of the company overall is diminished.

At no time is this more important than when dealing with customer complaints and problems. As I published in How Fit Is Your Customer Service?, the true test of a business’s customer service fitness is not when things are going right – but rather what is done when things go wrong.

That brings me to a truly horrendous case of customer disservice by a customer service rep at Comcast. As well documented in the article (with audio clip) posted below from cnet.com yesterday, the customer simply wanted to disconnect his service.  The abusive way he was treated has certainly left a lasting negative impression of the company overall.

Could this Comcast rep be the worst service rep in the world? – CNET
http://www.cnet.com/news/could-this-comcast-rep-be-the-worst-service-rep-in-the-world/

It’s a shame that this happened and I’m sure Comcast believes this incident is not representative of their customer service quality overall. Still, this one bad experience all by itself has done considerable harm – not only with this customer who undoubtedly will never return but also by extension with the countless folks he has now shared his tragedy with.

Always remember…

The True Test of Customer Service

Truly great service happens at all points (beginning-middle-end) of the customer relationship!

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

Steve Ferrante is the Grand PooBah & Trainer of Champions of Sale Away LLC., providing Pinnacle Performance Sales, Customer Service and Winning Team Culture training, speaking and professional development services to success-driven businesses throughout North America. For detailed information visit Sale Away. Steve can be reached directly at 866-721-6086 ext. 701 or via email at steve@saleawayllc.com

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Southwest Airlines Customer Service Recovery In Action!

As I train my Pinnacle Performance clients and wrote about in this Winning and Losing with Customer Complaints article…

The True Test Of Customer Service

One ‘Pinnacle Performance’ company that sets the standard for managing customer service problems effectively is Southwest Airlines.

Here’s a great example of this:

A loyal Southwest Airlines passenger was upset that his luggage had been damaged on a flight.  When the agent he initially reported the problem was less than helpful, he sent Southwest customer care this witty diddy:

DearSWA

Of course, this would have been best managed if the first Southwest employee he encountered assumed ownership and pro-actively resolved the issue.  Fortunately, after that initial misstep, Southwest recovered nicely by taking care of the customer in equally stylish fashion:

SWA_Response

In summary, Southwest Airlines passed the ‘test’, recovered what could have been a lost customer with a ‘bad service’ story to tell,  and set a great example for other customer-focused business’s to follow.

Make a Great Day!

Steve 🙂

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