Lifestyle: Business - The Best Examples of Customer Service Management

To date, there are many brands that have made their names known for excellent customer service management. In doing so, these brands have been able to get amazing word-of-mouth marketing and have increased their business. At times, they have turned a bad situation around and made it a statement on the quality of service and care that they show to their customers. Today, I want to take this opportunity to give you some examples of exemplary Customer Service Management.

Case 1: FedEx – “Absolutely, Positively, Unacceptable”

It was in December 2011 when a video came out that escalated to an online uproar against FedEx online. The video showed a FedEx deliveryman throwing a customer’s monitor over his fence. The YouTube video got viewed over 3,000,000 within just 2 days. To address the issue, FedEx created a blog post entitled ‘Absolutely, Positively, Unacceptable’ where they explained how the situation was being handled. The post also had a video of their own wherein they apologized. The controversial video is now being used as part of the FedEx team training to prevent future occurrences such as this from ever happening again. Their actions earned the brand a positive sentiment from the internet and, more importantly, from their customers.

Case 2: Amazon – “Just in Time for Christmas”

If you love online shopping or, at least, frequent surfing the internet, you would have heard of Amazon and the service they provide. They have items online that you can buy which will then be shipped to you. There was a situation, however, where a PlayStation unit was ordered and was snatched after it was delivered to the customer’s apartment building. The package was signed for by the customer’s neighbour and was delivered securely by Amazon which cleared them of all responsibility because they technically fulfilled their end of the bargain already. The customer called Amazon to beg them for anything that could be done because the PlayStation was his son’s wish to Santa. Amazon shocked the customer when they sent him another unit for no extra charge, not even shipping. Most important of all, the delivery was made just in time for Christmas. Imagine the joy of the customer and how news of that travelled to others!

Case 3: Virgin America – “Personalized Apologies”

Back in November 2011, the airline company known as Virgin America made an upgrade to their reservation system. This upgrade, however, became problematic as it caused various issues and difficulties to their customers. Complaints over Twitter and Facebook ran rampant with various people expressing their sentiments regarding their issues. The typical solution to such a situation would simply be to release a statement or a general apology. Virgin America opted for a more personalized approach though by replying to EACH and EVERY concern regarding their specific problems. Their replies amounted to over 12,000 direct messages.

The Lesson in Customer Service Management

Going the extra mile for your customers really helps. Notice how each of the cases acted immediately and efficiently on each of their situations. This can only be done if everyone in the company subscribes to this level of customer servicing mind-set. Another thing here that you must always remember is that the cost of doing similar things is nothing as compared to the typical marketing cost of getting new customers. Amazon for example may have spent around USD500-700 but if you compare this to the cost of creating a marketing campaign that will get you the same amount of buzz and talk value, it should amount to up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Always think that any additional money that you spend for customer service is a spend towards your marketing budget and to ensure customer loyalty and repeat businesses. Try to see what you can get from these examples and apply them to your own businesses.

Do you have a moment when your customer service standards saved you a headache, or created a spike in sales or positive social mentions? We’d love to hear about it.