Providing Legendary Customer Service: A How-To Guide
There are two famous legends about Zappos.com customer service, the largest online shoe store in the world, that I wanted to share.
Several years ago, Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, met with several vendors from Skechers. One of the vendors have the desire for pizza late at night and suggested they should call the Zappos customer service for assistance. The group laughed. Zappos CEO is not. He thinks calling Zappos customer service to inquire about the pizza is a good idea. Tony Hsieh is so confident in his company’s customer service (a shoe company, remember) that he told the vendor to make a call and ask about the pizza.
Vendor out Zappos customer service line. Zappos rep brief and courteous to make sure the caller knows he called Zappos, then said, “Of course, I can help you, give me just a moment.”
After a very brief pause, polite representative gave a list of the five nearest pizza parlor is still open. He expressed his personal recommendations in a very professional, offer to read the information in the above text, phone, or email-which is best for the caller.
As you can imagine, everyone at the table was stunned. Everyone but Tony Hsieh.
Here’s another example of Zappos:
“One of the most crazy stories,” said Jerry Tidmore, who runs a help-desk concierge service Zappos’, “is that guests check in at the Mandalay Bay hotel (in nearby Las Vegas) and forgot his shoes.”
According to Tidmore, the guest called Zappos, where he originally bought the shoes, look for a replacement, but they do not have any in stock. So companies are finding the right size underwear at a local mall, buy them and submit them to the hotel – all for free.
Yes, it is the stuff of legend.
The key provision of the legendary Customer Service
Entire books have been written about this issue, but here’s a few buttons.
1 – Focus on what you can do. Do not ever say ‘I can not,’ or ‘I’m not allowed.
Remember this: You are not guaranteed to have everything in stock all the time, you are not guaranteed to be able to answer every question every time, but you are guaranteed to help customers all the time. Period.
2 – It is your job. If you are a salesman or manager and somehow you get a call about IT or technical issues, your first reaction is, ‘this is not my job.
Wrong.
Helping them is your job! So help them. If you can not fix the problem, find someone who can quickly and efficiently as possible.
3 – transfer transfer Warm vs. cool – Have you ever called the company to explain the problem situation /, you explain all, and they transfer you? “I’m going to transfer to Mary.” Maria picked up the phone and you have to explain who you are and why you called again. And if that person still can not help you … their transfer, and the process of repetition and explanation, and repeating his own frustration.
It was a cold transfer.
Transfer warm like this: You call the company to explain the situation / problem. You explain and representatives who say ‘I’ll transfer you to Mary, she will be able to help you. “But instead of encouraging the transfer and you forget, this representation calls Mary herself, with you on the phone, and explained to her what he had just told him. He did the work for you, so you do not have to explain everything 47 times.
That is customer service.
4 – Attitude – Three button first truly tactics, special things to do or not do. But the most important key is attitude. You must have the attitude of ‘have’ any problem that comes across your desk or to your store. You must follow through to the end.
