I've had to deal with a lot of customer service lately. My (only a baby!) iphone sipped a bit of moisture and died. I think it may have been alcohol. My sisters were over. My fibre optic TV is epileptic and Dh's car needed service. First Apple. What a pleasure! Not that an iperson like myself would expect anything less! The phone was under warranty so I did expect an obligation on their part to talk things over when I called. However I enjoyed the experience as they used real people words, called me by first name and really wanted to make the damn thing work for me. After a very long time and lots of effort back and forth they declared it dead and sent me a new one. It arrived 2 days later but of course I was in the shower so the UPS guy needs to come back. Even the news that I needed to fork out money for a replacement was delivered with sympathy and empathy. They also updated their info on me so that when I called the next day to see about my very old ipod on the blink, my call bypassed the endless 'press 1' crap and a nice automated voice said 'Hello Nancy, Are you calling about ...?' and I was and I got a person right away. That nice person spent a long time helping me with my issue even though there was no warranty at all. That's service! We decided not to let PC people play with my itoys because that's just poor ihygene. DH take note!
Then I had to deal with the fibre optic people and my previous experience with them has been dismal. Not so this time! The helpful person confirmed that he too could see a problem, that the promo on free channels was indeed puzzling and he wished they would listen to him, and that he too had not recorded 2 1/2 men successfully. He sent out a repair guy the next morning and he came at 8 am! I am now all fixed up - and was most entertained as he chatted with DH on the phone - holding the receiver away from his ear and mouthing "he's not listening to me!" at me. I gave him toast, tea and homemade jam for that one! I didn't mention ham, as he is getting married next week and doesn't need to know yet, I'm sure.
The car people are always excellent and I know their boss. He has never beaten his staff and it has always shown. They all seem happy and have all the time to deal with you and your issues. Love those guys! How much? I drive 100 km each way to have my car serviced.
While I was there the pay me person was telling me about her grandchild's first day at school. She was so impressed by the teachers and principal out on the grounds before the day started. They knew all of the returning students, greeted them by name and with personal interest, and seemed to love what they were doing. She felt so blessed to be leaving her little one with such people. I remember being one of those staff and how I loved first day. When you don't beat your staff and they are well placed in their job - they can do anything and do it well.
But can we sell that to the Americans? Perhaps it's best if we don't?
So the thing seems to be that service staff seem to be happier and therefore are passing on the feeling in their work. It's amazing what happens when you stop beating the staff!
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