A couple weeks ago I wrote about an experience I had with an Einstein Bros. Bagel employee. This was one of the best customer experiences I have ever had. In that post, I explained that to me, great client service comes down to one thing:
Give more attention and care to the person you’re serving than he or she ever expects to receive
I also threw out a challenge for us all. I wanted people to share stories of great client service they’ve given recently, or of great service they have received. There is enough bad news in the world, so this is a way to focus on the positive. Over the past two weeks, I’ve received several e-mails and calls with stories. Today I heard one from my mother-in-law that I want to share. She was inspired by the post.
Elaine is the nursing supervisor over the night shift at a hospital in California. Recently, she was working and received a call from a woman in another town. This woman needed to come to the hospital for medication that it was critical for her to have. She had no car. She had no money.
Elaine had printed my post about exemplary client service and had been carrying it around on her clipboard at work. She reflected on the story and knew what she needed to do. She told the woman that she would personally pay for a cab to come pick her up, bring her to the hospital, then take her home. This ensured that the woman would not have any adverse reaction without her medication. It also showed the woman that someone out there cared for her. What a great example of how going out of your way for one person can really change things. I am thrilled that she was inspired to do this.
What about you? Do you have any stories of great customer service? Please share them in the comments. So tweet it and let’s see how many great customer service stories we can get!
5 Comments
Great story about a woman with a heart. We always hear about the bad things people do and not enough about the good things. Laurie once suggested I write a blog about what inspires me and about gratitude because that’s what makes me tick–I may just have to do that. You, Patricia Marie, and your post…may have been my “wink from God” Thank you!
@Traci- I am so excited it has inspired you to write! You definitely need to let me know when you get it set up. I can’t wait to read it.
@Joan- Thank you for sharing such a great story. It demonstrates that not all people would take the opportunity to reach out and help others, but when you do, WOW! I love your last line and it’s worth repeating “I love good customer service- I demand it and I give it.”
I used to work for a company that made corned beef, pastrami, and similar Jewish-style deli meats for the food service (restaurant and institutions) market. The company only sells a small amount of “retail” – packaged for the retail/direct consumer market. The absolute busiest time of the year is St. Patrick’s Day, because lots of restaurants put corned beef on the menu even if they don’t usually sell it.
On St. Patrick’s Day 2008, late at night, the company got an email from a woman who had purchased our corned beef at a local supermarket (answering company email was my job, too). That market was selling one of our cheapest cuts of raw corned beef at a discount as a loss leader. She was very upset with the quality of the corned beef and how her entire St. Pat’s dinner was ruined because of it. So I emailed her back and got her address (the price she paid for the meat was in her complaint). The next day I drove to her house with a whole corned beef brisket (about twice the size of what she had purchased, and the best quality way to buy it) and a cash refund. She wasn’t home, so I left in on the porch (thank goodness it was cold out) and sent her an email telling her it was there.
I received a lovely email letter from her the next day about customer service and how no one seems to care anymore. She was so impressed that “the company” had done this.
Truthfully, if someone else besides me had gotten that email (there were 2 owners and me at that company which was the entire C-suite :)), she would have never seen or heard from anyone, because the owners thought I was crazy to go to those lengths, especially for a retail customer, since retail was just a blip on their sales. So much for the “company” response.
It was the right thing to do, and the good thing about small business is I just did it – no one to tell me not to or no hoops to jump to get it done. The bad thing about small business is when you have owners that don’t care and there is no way to change/fix it.
Enough ranting. Great post, Trisha. I love good customer service – I demand it and I give it.