CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCCESS

In today’s world where customer service seems to be disappearing I have a customer service success story.

My daughter had a water problem in her townhome this week. It was a big enough problem that she had to call a company to come to her home and clean up some of the mess caused by the water.

Not that it should matter but just for the record, my daughter is only 5 feet tall and she lives alone. Calling a company to have someone come to her house can be very unsettling. She never knows who is going to show up and in most cases doesn’t know the reputation of the company except for the recommendation of a friend.

This company was different. When my daughter called to set the appointment the scheduler gave her the company web site. My daughter was given the name of the person that was dispatched and told on the web site there is a picture and bio of the person.

My daughter called me as soon as she looked at the web site to tell me about it. I thought it was a great idea, seeing the picture assured that she would open the door for the right person. Now I understand that this doesn’t assure the company to be reputable or the person to be honest, but it is better than blindly opening the door to someone.

This idea was novel and to me told a lot about the company and how they were attempting to supply better customer service to their clients.

Keep in mind, this didn’t help them make a sale, the information was supplied after the appointment was made. There were no ads or banners on the web site trying to sell you additional services. You didn’t need to navigate through page after page to find the picture and bio it was right there on the main page. This was nothing more than an additional service done for the customers benefit.

How much customer service do you or your company do for your customers simply because it is a service not to send a message to buy more? I have been sent to web sites to find information where I have had to navigate through page after page of ads and propaganda before I found what I needed. I have made appointments with dozens of companies to send service people to my home and had never been given information on the person other than possibly a name.

This was to me, and to my daughter, a very big deal and in a small way gave us both added confidence in the company. It added value to what they did and when the service person was there gave him more of an “expert” status.

Did the picture and bio make this service person any smarter, any better, any more honest, or any more qualified? Not even one little bit! But it didn’t hurt either.

Lorin