Ever noticed how you react when you receive good customer service? You feel good about the experience, you think to yourself, I think I’ll come here again, buy this product again, use this service again. Good service will keep you coming back. Excellent service will not only get you back, but also get you talking about your experience and sharing it with your friends, colleagues, family, anyone you meet. Unfortunately, so will bad service. We love to share good bad service stories. We’ve all heard about that steak that wasn’t cooked right, how rude the waiter was, how long we were on hold to our telecommunications company, how we were ignored by the shop attendant.

As a customer service provider, how do we combat this?

How can we turn a piece of bad customer service in to a positive experience?

Simple. Make it right. I was taught this simple principle when on the phone to my mobile phone company. They virtually called me a liar, not something any customer likes to hear, sense or feel. According to their ‘computer system’ I had not called and canceled my subscription to extra video services. I explained and pleaded with the customer service rep on the phone that I certainly had and gave her dates and times, but to no avail. To her credit, she was extremely courteous and professional at all times. But I was becoming irate. I had an extra charge on my bill and was now being told I was a liar because there was no record in their system of my call.

During the call, I found the call listed I had made on my bill and asked her to look up who I had called that day at that time. There was a pause, obviously embarrassed, as she recognized a mistake had been made. She quickly went in to damage control. She made it right. Firstly she apologized, straight away. Big tick. Then she explained what she was going to do for me. She was going to credit my account and cancel the service.

Now you would say, ‘Ok Matt, that’s what you’d expect, so she should’, but this is where she gave me the ‘custom service’ that took me from having a poor service experience, to having an excellent customer service experience. One that I’d share with my friends and one I’d write an article about.

My problem was, as I explained to her… how could I be sure this wouldn’t just happen again next month? What proof would I have that I even made this call? They couldn’t find evidence that I’d made the first call to cancel the service. To this she responded, “Well Mr. Daly, I will take personal responsibility to ensure it is not on your next bill”. Wow! A customer service representative taking personal responsibility!? Hutchinson 3 Australia, where did you find this person? She said that she would call me the day before my bill was sent and confirm with me that the fee was not on it. Now this made me feel good, actually it made me feel great! Previously I’ve been with Telstra and Optus and never once received service as good as this. But what took the whole experience to the greatest height was, she actually did call, she did follow up, she did what she said. Not only did she keep my business, but she turned me in to an advocate for her company, I now tell everyone what phone company I use and how good they are.

In customer service we are bound to make mistakes and often it won’t even be our direct fault. Don’t make excuses, just make it right. Make sure your staff have the power and resources to make it right. Just remember, if you are going to make promises, do what you say. Follow up and follow it through to completion. You make customers for life, simply by providing a custom customer service solution.