About 2 months ago I read about an experience with an electronics company (LG Electronics USA) and an amazing customer EXPERIENCE they were providing. The bottom line recap was this:
-Man (we will call him 'consumer-man"!) bought a TV about 5 years ago
-TV started getting wonky about 8 months ago
-TV was self-declared dead 2 months ago
-TV was out of warranty by YEARS
-Consumer-man called on a whim to LG support
-They extended the warranty to cover the full cost of repairs
All this process so far, no questions asked. No feeling of guilt. No making it seem like they were bending over backwards or that they were really doing consumer-man a favor.
To catch up, the repairs failed! Consumer-man thinks it is a combination of the TV going bad and the authorized repair facility (who had admittedly never worked on an LG unit – so how are you authorized then?) not really putting things in right. After 3 attempts and 2 new parts (optics unit and some drive board) which appeared to have totaled about USD $1,000 retail (what he would have had to pay), it still wasn’t working. The repair guy was frustrated and left consumer-man's house saying I just put in the parts…you’ll have to call LG. He was not friendly.
Our hero called LG again thinking they would say that they’ve given their best effort and apologize and we’d be on our way. Not so. Again, rather than making him feel bad, the next conversation shocked him…it was along the lines of this: We’re so sorry Mr. Consumer-man you’ve had this problems. We don’t want to inconvenience you anymore. We’d like to replace your TV with a new one.
In case you didn’t hear it, that was the sound of consumer-man picking his jaw up off the floor. He received his NEW television days later and reports no problems thus far.
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It is rumored that Nordstrom (the large department store chain) began its internal experience years ago with the unwritten slogan, "Customer for life--whatever it takes". What an "awesome" responsibility for their team members to live up to, but how freeing as well! Like LG's obvious commitment, it gave emplyees the right--the freedom--to do whatever it takes to make things right! Are you willing to go the extra mile to do that for YOUR customers???
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Best and Worst of Customer Service
Because I am a professional speaker on how to go BEYOND Customer Service to the Customer Experience, I am going to begin blogging today (and once weekly) on incredible customer service stories as told to me by YOU my audience. As I travel the world, I am more apt to hear HORROR customer service stories and I encourage you to share them in your comments. Get it off your chest. Tell me how poorly you've been treated! This just gives ME potential clients with whom to work!!!!!!!!! I will try to stick to the positive stories--as few and far between as they may seem. Like this one...
I bought a Nintendo Wii on launch day (11/19/06). Every day since then, excepting the two weeks I was on vacation, it has been lovingly used in our house. It has traveled to spread the gospel of Nintendo-style gaming in the homes of friends and relatives. It has been lent out as the star of children's birthday parties. And all this time, its optical drive was a little louder than I liked, but I thought maybe they were all that way.
Over the past few weeks it started getting louder. I knew I should get it looked at. It wasn't damaging game discs, but it was really annoying when the vibration noise was louder than the game sounds. I just hated the idea of explaining to my 6 year old that when he does want to play -- because he does a lot of things that are not playing video games, but it's a tradition for us to have a quick round of Monkey Ball or Mario Party in the evenings, and I traded in the GameCube for the Wii since the Wii plays all the GCN games -- that it would be out for a few weeks getting repaired. I finally resolved to send it in over this coming weekend, when we had lots of outdoor outings planned.
So I called the Nintendo customer service telephone number, located right there on their web site (you would be surprised how many companies, and especially repair departments, don't list their phone number on the web). The message telling me I had to wait for a CSR didn't even finish playing before a rep was on the line. I explained my problem and she said she'd get me an RMA right away to get it fixed.
She asked for my phone number. I gave it to her. She did a bit of a verbal double-take and said, "Are you here in Washington?"
"I'm in Redmond, as a matter of fact [location of Nintendo of America's campus]," I replied.
"Well then, let's not bother with the RMA and the shipping labels and all of that. Just bring it on in to Nintendo," she said.
Wh-what...?
She assured me she was not kidding. She gave me directions to the Nintendo campus building where the Customer Service Center was located, and five minutes later I was looking at an unassuming door. I took a deep breath, told my son to hold on to the Wii with both hands, for goodness' sake, and opened the door.
A life-size Mario and a larger-than-life Pikachu greeted us. So did a really nice, cheerful woman behind the sales counter. I related my telephone conversation to her, still certain that I'd been had.
"Oh, yeah!" she said. "We do that!"
"Awesome," I blurted. I really did say "Awesome." I'm embarassed about that now.
"It's going to be about 30 minutes, though," she went on. "I'm really sorry."
She wasn't Japanese, but clearly Nintendo is a Japanese company. Only a Japanese service center would apologize for taking 30 minutes to repair a piece of electronics when my expectation going in was that I'd be without it for two weeks.
The boy played games in the waiting area while I sat under the watchful eye of Mario. 25 minutes later I saw her emerge from the back room out of the corner of my eye, but I was watching the boy playing a particularly suspenseful level of Wario Ware Twist. She waited until she heard the "level complete" sound to get my attention.
In those 25 minutes, they'd transferred all of my Miis, friends, and saved games from the old console to a new one. She logged on to make sure my 500 points transferred to the shopping channel. She sent me out with a $0.00 invoice showing a warranty replacement of my Wii and a reset of the warranty clock, meaning the Wii I took home has 15 months of coverage from today, even though I bought my original one almost 3 months ago.
I bought a Nintendo Wii on launch day (11/19/06). Every day since then, excepting the two weeks I was on vacation, it has been lovingly used in our house. It has traveled to spread the gospel of Nintendo-style gaming in the homes of friends and relatives. It has been lent out as the star of children's birthday parties. And all this time, its optical drive was a little louder than I liked, but I thought maybe they were all that way.
Over the past few weeks it started getting louder. I knew I should get it looked at. It wasn't damaging game discs, but it was really annoying when the vibration noise was louder than the game sounds. I just hated the idea of explaining to my 6 year old that when he does want to play -- because he does a lot of things that are not playing video games, but it's a tradition for us to have a quick round of Monkey Ball or Mario Party in the evenings, and I traded in the GameCube for the Wii since the Wii plays all the GCN games -- that it would be out for a few weeks getting repaired. I finally resolved to send it in over this coming weekend, when we had lots of outdoor outings planned.
So I called the Nintendo customer service telephone number, located right there on their web site (you would be surprised how many companies, and especially repair departments, don't list their phone number on the web). The message telling me I had to wait for a CSR didn't even finish playing before a rep was on the line. I explained my problem and she said she'd get me an RMA right away to get it fixed.
She asked for my phone number. I gave it to her. She did a bit of a verbal double-take and said, "Are you here in Washington?"
"I'm in Redmond, as a matter of fact [location of Nintendo of America's campus]," I replied.
"Well then, let's not bother with the RMA and the shipping labels and all of that. Just bring it on in to Nintendo," she said.
Wh-what...?
She assured me she was not kidding. She gave me directions to the Nintendo campus building where the Customer Service Center was located, and five minutes later I was looking at an unassuming door. I took a deep breath, told my son to hold on to the Wii with both hands, for goodness' sake, and opened the door.
A life-size Mario and a larger-than-life Pikachu greeted us. So did a really nice, cheerful woman behind the sales counter. I related my telephone conversation to her, still certain that I'd been had.
"Oh, yeah!" she said. "We do that!"
"Awesome," I blurted. I really did say "Awesome." I'm embarassed about that now.
"It's going to be about 30 minutes, though," she went on. "I'm really sorry."
She wasn't Japanese, but clearly Nintendo is a Japanese company. Only a Japanese service center would apologize for taking 30 minutes to repair a piece of electronics when my expectation going in was that I'd be without it for two weeks.
The boy played games in the waiting area while I sat under the watchful eye of Mario. 25 minutes later I saw her emerge from the back room out of the corner of my eye, but I was watching the boy playing a particularly suspenseful level of Wario Ware Twist. She waited until she heard the "level complete" sound to get my attention.
In those 25 minutes, they'd transferred all of my Miis, friends, and saved games from the old console to a new one. She logged on to make sure my 500 points transferred to the shopping channel. She sent me out with a $0.00 invoice showing a warranty replacement of my Wii and a reset of the warranty clock, meaning the Wii I took home has 15 months of coverage from today, even though I bought my original one almost 3 months ago.
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