As my research agenda has turned lately to thinking more about business and how companies can maximize their profits, I’ve spent a lot of time pondering customer service.
So far, this is the single best example of customer service I have ever heard about, courtesy of Zappos.
The Zappos story will be difficult to beat, but I’m interested in hearing from readers about your best customer service experiences. I’ve written about one of mine.
What was yours? What made it so great?
and 
. You can also watch it on 
My mom bought some sidewalk paint for my nieces and nephews from Crayola that was supposed to “wash off with the first rain”. However, it never did, and you can still clearly see where they painted the sidewalk.
She called Crayola, they told her to take a picture send it to them, and then get the sidewalk redone. They’d pay for the whole thing! Unclear if she’s going to take them up on it, or try some power washing or something first.
Either way, the fact that they’d offer to pay for a new sidewalk is pretty impressive.
“In the long-term, society only likes to do business with socially responsible companies. ”
In the long term, we’re all dead.
That, and in the long term, when you’ve long left Bear Stearns, Lehman bros or Enron, the taxpayer is taking up the bill, while your yacht(s), jet(s) and country club membership are still yours.
I’ve heard a story about Nordstrom’s accepting a return for some tires. The catch being that Nordstrom’s doesn’t sell tires. It was supposedly one of their very best customers who was old and a little confused.
This didn’t happen to me, but I heard a story of someone who was taking their wife on a surprise trip to France for their anniversary. He made sure to let the hotel staff know that the trip was a surprise (I think this was the Ritz Carlton in Paris). Unfortunately though, someone at the hotel ruined the surprised when they called the house to confirm the reservation. They upgraded them to the penthouse suite and didn’t charge them a dime.
I was having a problem with a local Saturn dealership and had escalated the problem to Corporate. During the discussions, I mentioned to the representative that I wanted this wrapped up as quickly as possible because I was getting married in two weeks and just didn’t have the time to deal with it. She asked me a couple of details about the wedding and I figured she was just making small talk. A couple days later we received an engraved clock as a wedding present.
Not my story but my boss once called L.L. Bean customer service regarding a problem with assembling a tent. The representative got the same model from stock and built it while my boss was on the phone so he could understand exactly what the issue was and talked my boss through it.
It is nothing like the Zappos story but I have become quite fond of EnviroInks.com, a company that sells aftermarket printer cartridges in an environmentally friendly way, at less than half the price you would pay for them elsewhere. They reuse the empty cartridges you send them back and they give you recycle credit that you could use on your next purchase. Plus, every shipment includes multiple bags so that you can send them old cartridges and cellphones. I love the company for its overall business model. I have had little interaction with their customer service but I suspect it is pretty awesome.
Could you please post the Zappo’s example instead of the link? The server said that the customer had reached their bandwidth limit.
Thanks,
Pat
So… if you’ve killed someone’s web site by linking to it… how should good customer services respond?