Too Late, Too Little?

I may have mentioned before a problem my grown daughter was having with getting pictures back from a photographer who took prom pictures of her and her friends - six months ago. The photographer (also a casual friend of the family) didn't return phone calls, emails, or even Facebook messages. My daughter finally filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and I wrote her a harshly worded email. I got involved because this woman's son was a friend of my son and not only was she not returning calls to me about the photos, but her son was not returning calls to my son. It was a bad situation.

Well, last Friday my daughter received her pictures and we both received apologies via text. Now, I'm a big proponent of telling customers you're sorry, especially if you messed up, and this apology was well-deserved. Her son resumed communicating with my son and my daughter proudly posted the pictures to Facebook. Case closed. Or is it? Apologies are good to build customer loyalty, but they must be delivered in a timely fashion. While there is no animosity amongst the involved parties, a business relationship has been irreparably damaged. Neither I nor my daughter will ever do business with this woman again, nor can we recommend her to others.

Furthermore, my daughter had been doing unpaid intern work for this photographer and the woman mentioned how she could really use the help now. Think my daughter is going to help? No way, nada, not at all. On top of losing a customer (and I was actually thinking about having this woman do some professional shots for me) she lost a loyal, hardworking, and cheap assistant.

So apologies are good, but they must be given swiftly and timely. An apology delivered too late might stave off legal action and resolve a situation, but it can still lead to the loss of a loyal customer -- or customers.

Tashi Delek!
Al

The Apology

A Facebook friend of mine posted this picture that really sums up what I was trying to say before about apologizing to customers. Giving an apology does not necessarily admit guilt - it is a simple way of saying, "I understand." What a powerful tool that can be used to build a better relationship with your customers.

A Tale of Two Transactions, Part II

In my last entry, dated a few months ago (my apologies, I've had a very busy summer), I promised a customer service experience I had with a company that did it right. That company is AT&T Wireless. That's right. I know they have a bad reputation, but I have not had one customer service problem with them over the years like I had with my previous carrier. For this reason, I can call myself a loyal customer. Unless they screw something up really bad, I will probably never switch and if I have any problem with my current cable service, I'll likely switch to AT&T U-verse. That is the the power of customer loyalty.

At the same time I was having trouble with the gas company, my cell phone got shut off (what can I say, it was a busy month). Frantic, I called them to see how much I needed to pay to get my service restored. I didn't have the money to pay all of it, and was hoping to take a partial payment.

Because of my decent (not great by any means) payment history, they agreed to restore my service - with only a promise to pay in six days! Of course, if that payment didn't go through, I would lose that option for future payments but still - talk about exceeding my expectations. I really thought I'd be without cell phone service through the weekend but AT&T really came through for me.

What's more, the rep on the phone didn't need to contact a supervisor to make that decision, nor was she reading from a script. She had the knowledge and the authority to make that decision, something the reps at my local gas company were lacking.

So many companies fear putting authority into the hands of a customer service rep but the rewards are many. Sure, they are going to make mistakes and often they will be in the favor of the customer, but what price to pay for customer loyalty?

Tashi Delek!
AFW