Customer service: selling is not a bad word!

Twitter may or may not be all that it's cracked up to be, but I've made plenty of friends and discoveries during the past few months of highly active Twitter participation.

For instance, @RobbDrury responded to me by directing me to a customer service video. I almost did not click the link thinking it was just another sales pitch. I am glad I did finally click that link because I think we need to think of customer service no matter what level we achieve in a company.

In fact, I will say that the most successful companies these days are those that understand that everyone in the company needs to be an evangelist for that company. Achievable? Probably not, but we can hope that a large percentage of our fellow employees will be evangelists. Why? Because if the company succeeds, I succeed. If you say that making money to put food on your table is not your idea of success, well, then you are lying. That may not define "success" but then we are discussing nuances of a word.

Back to Twitter, I ask people if they want to exchange "business cards" through Twitter. See, I think everyone on Twitter is in business even if they are not selling things. But we all are at least selling ourselves in one way or another. We need to get away from the idea that "selling" is a bad word.

Watch this video sent Robb Drury to see what I mean.

photo by jennifer könig

Greg Cryns

Twitter scores another customer service home run

This is to show that companies can profit with social networking on the Internet. It also shows how fast things can happen there, too.

Yesterday I saw a tweet from one of my followers on Twitter, @JoanneSardini



Joanne said, "The power of Twitter strikes again! Why can't life problems all be solved this easily - Thanks guys!!"

Well, this sure interested me since I am always looking for proof that social networking works.

Here is the first tweet about the problem: "Just had a horrible experience with Shoebuy.com - they need to meet @zappos for some customer service advice! I got told off on the phone"

The second tweet about the problem:
"All I did was had a different billing address from my shipping address - not so unusual, right? "Not for shoebuy.com - not cool!!!"

I sent a message to Joanne asking if she would sent a description of the incident to post here. Joanne agreed and sent me this email message today.

<>

My online shoe buying experience took a knock over the past 2 days but ShoeBuy.com certainly redeemed themselves.

I ordered two pairs of shoes and used a credit card with a different name and billing address than the shipping info.

Not a big deal, thought.

ShoeBuy emailed me and asked me to call their processing dept. I did. They wanted to speak to the cardholder.

This is where it gets a bit sticky.

The cardholder is my Mom who happens to live in Scotland. I told them they couldn’t talk to her on this number.

Before I even had a chance to give her email or phone number I was told my order was being canceled – for my mother’s security.

OK, I get the point and appreciate that they were protecting her credit card but this is when it gets bad. I suggested that if they are concerned with cardholder security, they should ask for cardholder contact info at order time.

The woman on the phone rudely interrupted me. To make a long story short, I hung up the phone with a bad feeling (and no shoes!).

In an angry mood, I went to Twitter and made three tweets about my experience (you can pull them from my page) suggesting that ShoeBuy.com could learn from Zappos great customer service.

Just 20 minutes later I answered my phone at home. A manager from ShoeBuy was on the phone. He apologized for my problem and immediately processed my order and graciously gave me 15% discount.

I told the manager that I would go back to Twitter and tell people about the excellent service I received from ShoeBuy. I was very happy with their speedy remedy. When he heard this he was very happy that I was satisfied.

ShoeBuy obviously closely monitors its online presence. The man I spoke to couldn’t have been more apologetic or nicer about the situation.

Great example of using Twitter to monitor and turn a negative into a positive!

Joanne Sardini
Director of Sales and Owner Services
Edgartown Residence Club
Colonial Inn of Martha's Vineyard
Phone: 800-465-2810
www.edgartownresidenceclub.com

< /snip >

In a span of one short hour Joanne told her followers on Twitter about her problem and ShoeBuy turned that complaint into a very happy customer. In addition, many people now have a warm and fuzzy feeling about ShoeBuy. They are likely to pick up some additional sales, possibly some immediate sales. Joanne has almost 2,000 followers.

Today I will post this blog. Another group of people will hear the good news about ShoeBuy.

The ROI of monitoring Twitter for ShoeBuy, at least, is apparent if not measurable. My faith in social networking got a big boost as well.

Photo by Jerry Wong

Greg Cryns
20000 Credit Card Debt
Wahm Search Engine

Customer Service: how to turn chicken crap into chicken soup

This is a little story about customer service and just plain good luck.

A few days ago I did an awful thing (just ask my wife).

I was in a hurry to send some letters and I put the wrong DVD into the bright red Netflix envelope. See, I also occasionally take movies out of the Hollywood movie place down the street.


We are fans of Sex and the City that I rented from Hollywood. The lighting was not so good in the room where we watch the movies (or maybe my vision was just awful that evening). Thus, I put the Hollywood DVD into the Netflix envelope and dropped it into the mailbox on the corner near my house.

I quickly realized what I had done so I called Netflix customer service to find out how to handle this revolting situation. The customer service rep was very friendly and he consulted with a supervisor. Unfortunately, the Netflix distribution centers get so much traffic that it would be next to impossible to track down the errant video and return it to me.

However, he told me that Netflix would give me a refund of $9.99 toward the next month's fee. Now that is going far beyond goodness. I did not deserve the refund.

I thanked the customer service rep and thought all was lost. But, as it turns out, persistence can be a profitable exercise.

The litte red envelope was put in the mailbox on Sunday night so it was not yet picked up this morning on Monday.

I called the local post office and explained my situation. I gave her the horrid details and told here where the Netflix envelope was being held. The post office lady promptly called the driver en route to the mailbox and told him to call me when he picked up the mail there.

Less than an hour later I received a call from the post office carrier. "Mr. Cryns? This is Kurt, your mailman."

I rushed down to the corner with the correct DVD to go back to Netflix. He opened the envelope and we made the switch. Phew! Will wonders never cease?

Takebacks:

1. Good customer service can save a husband hours of grief from his wife.
2. Sometimes you can get good customer service from more than one company at a time.
3. Never give up. Be persistent and you may get lucky (not in the Biblical sense).

Greg Cryns
FREE report "13 Guerrilla Tactics To Build Your Email List"

20000 Credit Card Debt
.

Southwest Air customer service story

.
Customer Service


I just had to pass this along.

My brother called me on his cell phone to chat. He had just left OHare airport in Chicago. He told me he flew Southwest Air into Chicago.

He also tole me this little story. When he boarded the airplane he took the seat closest to the front on the left side hoping to make a quick getaway when he landed.

Next to him was sitting a middle age man in Southwest Air garb. My brother was very thirsty and asked the man if he could get a coke a little early.

The man said, "Sure!"

A few minutes later the man returned with a can of coke and a plastic glass. My brother thanked him and he was about to start reading a magazine when he the man said, "Time to work!"

The man turned around and walked into the flight cabin just ahead. The last thing my brother saw before the the cabin door closed was the man sitting down in the pilot's seat.


greg cryns
Wahm Search Engine - low cost, high value advertising

Customer Service - how to get through to a human being fast!

Isn't talking with a human being a sign of good customer service?

Have you tried to contact your local bank recently? Almost all of them have gone to a central 800 number that shields them from customer contact. Are we interlopers who take too much of their precious time? When you do get a human where is that person located in the world? Certainly not in your home town!

I want the personal service a local banker can provide. This trend is to make sure you cannot take the employees away from more important pursuits, like, maybe, coffee breaks around the copy machine.

Well, that is just an observation. Here is a company that will at least help you get through to a human being.

To the rescue!

http://www.gethuman.com

"When you're tired of wasting money and time due to phone systems that require you to press 10 or more options in order to reach a real person and spending many minutes or even hours on hold, consult the GetHuman database of secret phone numbers and codes that immediately get an actual, live person on the line for customer service at nearly 1000 major companies."



Greg Cryns
Join a new community of Wahm folks. http://www.workathomeprofiles.com
Wahm Search Engine http://www.wahmsearchengine.com
My business blog: http://gregcryns.blogspot.com