ask anyone ‘Pretty Woman’ fan and gleefully recount that unforgettable scene when Julia Roberts arrives on Rodeo Drive to go shopping. Remember the bliss of revenge scene in the 1990s romantic fantasy?
Then it happens that Vivian visits a fancy boutique to buy a nice dress where she is rejected by the snooty salesmen. Later, she buys a host of obscenely expensive outfits and then she returns, dressed to the nines and with a handful of shopping bags, to the one boutique she had turned her down.
“You work on commission, right?” he asks a la-di-da saleswoman.
“Eh yes”.
“Big mistake. Big. HUGE!”
“I have to go shopping now” he says, turning on his heel to leave (while giving a collective sigh of satisfaction at the horrified look on the vendor’s face. He deserved it!).
Moral of the story? It doesn’t matter how deep your customers’ 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 hurt, that her tweets will go viral with tons of people contributing her own frustration, that the movement will gain momentum and drive the store to digital suicide?
In a service company, nothing is more important than having people on your team who will do more than represent your current culture – you have to have people who drive the culture you have, not the other way around.
More often than not in 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 customer happiness.
Zappos
Did you know that up to 42% of consumers expect a response within 60 minutes? Apparently a quick response is the norm, not the exception anymore.
If there’s a gold standard in customer service, it has to be Zappos. Their supporting success stories are the stuff of urban legends. In one such case, they won a customer for life by giving a pair of shoes, free of charge, to a sponsor in need.
On social media, Zappos doesn’t shy away from having a little 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 at the Delta, the view was pretty ugly and he tweeted that with his followers. He didn’t tag the hotel, he just commented on it, as he didn’t think anything would come of the tweet.
She was pleasantly surprised when Delta responded within the hour, offering another room with a better view! And she had a plate of sweets and a handwritten card from the staff awaiting her arrival in her room. Mike was so deeply impressed that he wrote an entire 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 support team have fun. Amazon has an exciting story to tell about what can happen when companies give their teams more freedom in communications with their customers.
One such instance, when a resourceful customer service person engaged 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 exchange of Thor and Odin was legendary. The hilarious communication between an Amazon employee and a customer couldn’t go any better even if it had a script!
Now, can you imagine how dry things would have been if Customer Service had been asked to respond only with strictly professional (read suffocating) and direct answers? More people than you think would appreciate humor. Just don’t make jokes at the expense of an angry customer.
west jet
There’s nothing more joyous than surprise gifts (as Westjet proved)! In December 2013, the Canadian airline staged what would become the most amazing example of ‘gift advertising’ yet.
When Santa greeted each of the passengers boarding Westjet’s two 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 big TV, their responses ranged from the first thing that came to mind.
The following year, the number of visits to their websites doubled, with bookings up 77% compared to the same month in 2012 and revenue up 86%.
Loose
Putting out figurative fires is what a customer service company does all day. But doing it gracefully is indeed an art! Sometimes when things aren’t going perfectly, a company’s true colors come out.
As is the case with Slack when they dealt with the entire app outage like a pro in late 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. Indispensable part of the working day for many teams! 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, diligently sharing regular updates until the issue was resolved and the app was back up and running.
Sales force
Transparency can leave a great impact on those who receive it. Salesforce has excellent customer service, which plays a key role in making it a customer favorite.
As they say, “success is built on trust.
Trust begins with transparency.”
Salesforce is so totally customer-centric and upholds transparency that the company publicly discloses in real time when its cloud services are unavailable or facing some dependency issues. That requires some courage!
Apple
The only brand that has inspired the kind of customer loyalty that sometimes borders on the maniacal, Apple earned their loyalty through its exemplary customer experience.
“You have to start with the customer experience and work your way back to the technology.”
Steve Jobs – Co-founder of Apple
While Apple products are the very definition of innovation and ease, the real soul of the company is its employees. Apple mitigates the need for reactive customer service with a focus on creating intuitive products and providing quality user training.
Apple people have a wealth of knowledge and are committed to passing on that knowledge in an empathetic way. They demonstrate enthusiastic, empathetic and knowledgeable customer service. The sheer quality of the training that the staff receives makes the entire customer experience seamless and above all effortless.
Nordstrom
At a Nordstrom store, a woman lost her diamond wedding ring while trying on clothes. She was crawling on the floor under the shelves when a store worker noticed her. She asked what was going on and then joined the search.
When they were 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.
Video clips capturing this incident were proudly shared with stakeholders at a meeting as Stores President Erik Nordstrom introduced his three employees who went above and beyond to help the customer. “I’ve never been through a vacuum bag. It’s kind of disgusting, this raises the bar,” he said.
southwestern air
Southwest isn’t among the best-known airlines in the US for nothing. They have the most amazing personality, as can be seen from what they have to say about themselves on their website.
“We like to think of ourselves as a customer service company that flies planes (on time, 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 clothes didn’t show up, she was understandably distraught over the soon-to-be-held relay race. She decided to go to Walmart to buy a replacement before a Southwest team member drove 3 hours to deliver the bag to her so she could continue with her team and get on with the race.
As is evident here, their dedication to customer service is simply in a class apart.
jet blue
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 that their service is completely human, especially on social media, responding in minutes, guiding customers at all times, and responding with emojis and GIFs to any questions customers may have.
They have no qualifications whatsoever when it comes to providing personalized service. Once, when the customer’s flight was delayed and it looked like she was going to miss her second flight, too, the manager booked her another flight home from another airport and went out of her way to get her to another airport so she could make her appointment. flight on time.
It only takes a handful of disastrous customer experiences to shatter the credibility that your brand took decades to build. It pays to be greedy in the long run and leave no stones unturned to ensure supreme customer service.