Knock their socks (or shoes) off

Very few things increase the user experience in the offline world more than exceptional customer service.

A friend of mine recently related a story about an experience he had while calling Zappos.com. He’d called to ask a few questions about a pair of shoes. The first thing the rep on the other end says is, “What can I do today to wow you with service?” Before Chester could answer the rep whipped out, “How about free shipping both to and from your house?”

“Sure, that sounds great,” Chester replied.

“How about next-day delivery at no extra charge?” the rep countered.

“I love it! Even better!”

“What if I gave you a 20% your next purchase? Would that wow you?”

“Heck yeah!”

And on it went until Chester finally said, “Yes, that totally wows me!” He then went on to ask his questions about the shoes.  Before ending the conversation the rep added, ”Oh, and these shoes generally run a little small; I’m going to send out a half size larger with a prepaid return label so you can try both sizes on and keep whatever fits.”

Fully wowed, Chester placed his order. He pledged to never order shoes from anywhere else.

Contrast the above story with this tale from a co-worker of mine. I will spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that his efforts in trying in obtaining refund from an airline for a flight not taken have resulted in, literally, hours on hold. He’s endured mis-direction, apathy and hostility. Just when he thought he’d it was taken care of his experience culminated in this unfulfilled promise, “Thank you for calling [xxx] Airlines. I’ll send you an email with all the details of your pending refund.” You guessed it, the email never arrived. With no way of knowing who he’d talked to he’s back at square one.

Here are three things that will take the user’s customer service experience from drudgery to loyalty.

1. Kill the phone tree. Nothing says “we don’t care” like a phone tree. If it’s absolutely necessary, figure out a way to make it positive—whether it’s always mentioning the “dial zero for an operator” option or throwing in funny quips (a la Southwest’s preflight spiel), find a way to smooth the transition from machine to human. Many large companies can’t get around having a phone tree. But many small companies think they need them; they don’t.
2. Empower your people. If you remember one lesson from the above story, remember how the rep on the phone was able to give a number of freebies just to make Chester’s experience better. And not even as a consolation to an angry customer—but just because. Let your people know it’s okay—even encouraged—to make the customer happy. Don’t make them take every little request to the boss.
3. Lower the risk. Find whatever pain-point your customers have and lower the risk. It’s risky to buy shoes online. (What if they don’t fit? What if I don’t like them? What if…any number of things.) Zappos get’s points for paying for shipping both to and from their location and not making Chester pay for the second pair of shoes they knew he wouldn’t keep. Talk about lowering the risk. Knowing it’s not a risky experience do you think Chester will buy again? Absolutely. And so will some of the people he related the story to.

Do anything in your power to make the offline customer service user experience as smooth as possible. It generates word-of-mouth and engenders loyalty—both of which lead to more sales and happier customers.