Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

That’s why for most people, when customer service reps go beyond empathizing and apologizing to correcting the problem, the effects are calming and lasting. When the rep becomes a friend by removing the stance of defensiveness, it can change the entire customer relationship.

I’d like to share two experiences I’ve had in the last week that emphasize the importance of this notion. The first is that my husband John ordered a golf hitting net from Birdieball.com. But when the net arrived last week, no assembling instructions were included and one of the shock poles was missing. When John called customer service, the rep immediately emailed the instructions and then sent out all new shock poles at no charge.

The next was last week I received an email alert from Blockbuster.com letting me know that the most recent movie in my queue was shipped. But as of yesterday, I hadn’t received it. I called customer service to let them know and the rep first empathized, then programmed a new movie to be shipped, as well as sent an e-coupon good for a movie in the store, saying “It’s our job to keep people in movies and that’s too long to be without a movie.”

Both of these experiences were positive. The reps not only diffused any potential negative engagement, but they created a positive experience that has now turned into word-of-mouth marketing. Both of these reps also took charge, as well as the initiative to do whatever they could to solve the problem as quickly as possible.

When you put this type of can-do strategy to work in your company, you will do more to simply solve problems for them--you will build personal connections that will benefit your organization in the long term.