Top 10 Customer Service Companies You Should Learn From
Ask anyone ‘Beautiful woman’ fan and will happily recount that unforgettable scene when Julia Roberts comes to Rodeo Drive to go shopping. Remember the revenge scene in the romantic fantasy of the nineties?
So it happens that Vivian visits an elegant boutique to buy a pretty dress where the smug salespeople reject her. Later, she buys a slew of obscenely expensive outfits and then returns, dressed to the nines and carrying a handful of shopping bags, to the only boutique that had turned her down.
“You work on commission, right?” he asks a saleswoman from la-di-da.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Big mistake. Big. HUGE!”
“I have to go shopping now” he says, turning on his heel to leave (while we breathe a collective sigh of satisfaction at the look of horror on the salesman’s face. He deserved it!).
Moral of the story? It doesn’t matter how deep your clients’ pockets are, it only matters how well you treat them. Imagine how different the movie would be if it were made now. What are the chances that Vivian will tweet her anger and pain, that her tweets will go viral with tons of people contributing their own frustration, that the movement will gain momentum and lead the store to digital suicide?
In a service business, nothing is more important than having people on your team who will do more than represent your current culture; You must have people who promote the culture you have, not the other way around.
Most often in the customer experience, you could get away with doing the bare minimum. That is mostly enough. But enough is far from memorable. It’s when you go out of your way that you make people’s day!
We’ve selected 10 brands that have an unbeatable track record when it comes to cultivating their customers’ happiness.
Zappos
Did you know that up to 42% of consumers expect a response in 60 minutes? Apparently a quick response is the norm, no longer the exception.
If there is a gold standard in customer service, it has to be Zappos. His supporting success stories are the stuff of urban legends. In one such case, they won a customer for life by delivering a pair of shoes overnight, free of charge, to a sponsor in need.
On social media, Zappos doesn’t shy away from having a bit of fun with emojis and GIFs, but they always stick to their golden rule of putting their customers first. And it’s worth it every time!
Delta Hotels
Mike McCready, your average Jo, was attending the #PSEWEB conference in Vancouver when he stayed at the Delta hotel. While he liked his room in the Delta, the view was pretty ugly and he tweeted it with his followers. He didn’t tag the hotel, he just commented on it, as he didn’t think anything came out of the tweet.
You were in for a pleasant surprise when Delta responded within an hour, offering another room with a better view! And he had a plate of sweets and a handwritten staff card awaiting his arrival in his room. Mike was so deeply impressed that he wrote a full post about it the same day.
Amazon
If happy customers are what you have in mind, then an exuberant customer service team is what you should already have. Let your customer service team have fun. Amazon has an exciting story to tell about what can happen when companies give their teams more freedom in communicating with their customers.
One such instance, when a resourceful customer service person participated in a Thor and Odin role-play with an equally resourceful customer, much to everyone’s delight. (https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/1133174/now-thats-customer-service-amazon-worker-engages-in-hilarious-thor-roleplay-to-help-replace-customers-lost -book / This Thor and Odin exchange was legendary. The fun communication between an Amazon employee and a customer couldn’t be better even if it was written!
Now, can you imagine how dry it would have been if Customer Service was asked to respond with only strictly professional (read stuffy) and straightforward answers? More people than you think would appreciate humor. Just don’t make jokes at the expense of a pissed off customer.
Westjet
There is nothing more joyous than surprise gifts (as Westjet proved)! In December 2013, the Canadian airline staged what would become the most impressive example of ‘gift advertising’ to date.
When Santa Claus greeted each of the passengers who boarded the two Westjet flights with “What would you like for Christmas?”, They thought it was an interesting Christmas celebration. From a warm scarf and clean underwear to vacation tickets and a large television, their responses varied from what first came to mind.
The following year, the number of visits to their websites doubled, bookings increased by 77% compared to the same month in 2012, and revenue increased by a whopping 86%.
Loose
Putting out figurative fires is what a customer service company does all day. But doing it gracefully is an art! Sometimes it is when things do not go perfectly that the true colors of a company are manifested.
As is the case with Slack when it dealt with the entire app outage like a pro at the end of November 2015. For a new company on the block, they have more than their share of passionate customers for whom Slack has become a part. many teams work day essential! That’s why when Slack went down ten months ago, users blew up Twitter.
They responded to all complaints on social media with speed and humility, and diligently shared regular updates until the issue was resolved and the app was back up and running.
Sales force
Transparency can have a huge impact on those who receive it. Salesforce has excellent customer service, which plays a vital role in making you a customer favorite.
As they say, “Success is built on trust.
Trust starts with transparency. “
Salesforce is so completely customer-centric and transparent so much that the company publicly discloses in real time when its cloud services are unavailable or face some trust issues. That takes a bit of courage!
Apple
The only brand that has inspired the kind of customer loyalty that sometimes borders on the manic, Apple earned their loyalty through its exemplary customer experience.
“You have to start with the customer experience and work back to the technology.”
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple
While Apple products are the very definition of innovation and ease, the real lifeblood of the company is its employees. Apple mitigates the need for reactive customer service with a focus on creating intuitive products and providing quality training to users.
Apple people are knowledgeable and committed to passing that knowledge on in an empathetic way. They demonstrate enthusiastic, empathetic, and expert customer service. The sheer quality of the training staff receives makes the entire customer experience seamless and above all effortless.
Nordstrom
At a Nordstrom store, a woman lost the diamond from her wedding ring while trying on clothes. She was crawling on the floor under the shelves when a store clerk noticed her. He asked what was going on and then joined the search.
When they arrived empty, he sought out two construction service workers to join the search. To everyone’s relief, they finally found the sparkling diamond in one of the store’s vacuum cleaner bags.
The video clips that captured this incident were proudly shared with stakeholders at a meeting when store president Erik Nordstrom said, featuring his three employees who went out of their way to help the customer. “I’ve never been through a vacuum bag. It’s kind of disgusting, this raises the bar,” he said.
Southwest Air
Southwest isn’t among the best-known airlines in the US for nothing. They have the most amazing personalities, as is apparent from what they have to say about themselves on their website.
“We like to think of ourselves as a customer service company that happens to fly planes (on schedule, with personality and perks along the way).”
One of her memorable support stories is this: When a female athlete landed at the airport but her running gear didn’t show up, she was understandably distraught about the relay race that was soon to take place. He decided to go to Walmart to buy himself a replacement before a member of the Southwest team drove 3 hours to deliver the bag to him so he could continue with his team and continue the race.
As is evident here, your dedication to customer service is simply a class apart.
Jetblue
Who but JetBlue has a unique Customer Bill of Rights?
“JetBlue Airways is dedicated to bringing humanity back to air travel. We strive to make every part of your experience as simple and enjoyable as possible.” They make sure their service is completely human, especially on social media, responding in minutes, guiding customers, and responding with emojis and GIFs to any questions customers might have.
They have no qualms when it comes to providing personalized service. Once, when the client’s flight was delayed and it seemed that she was also going to miss her second flight, the manager booked her another flight home that took off from another airport and made an effort to take her to another airport so that she could make her flight on time.
It only takes a handful of disastrous customer experiences to break credibility that took decades to build. It pays to be greedy in the long run and leave no stones unturned to ensure supreme customer service.