Comments on: Tony Hsieh of Zappos tells us about importance of customer service at Inc. Conference in DC https://plusdelta.net/2009/10/customer-service/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=customer-service Project Management, Change Management. Leadership Coaching Wed, 15 Apr 2020 15:51:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: Jeremy Lurey https://plusdelta.net/2009/10/customer-service/#comment-11 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:37:03 +0000 https://www.plusdelta.net/?p=1019#comment-11 My favorite customer service success story is Starwood – the hotel and resort property company. I’ve been a loyal Starwood Preferred Guest for more than 10 years now, and this year – in a down economy! – they launched a new program for all their Platinum Preferred Guests (those of us who travel A LOT every year) with Personal Ambassadors. I now have “Vicki” at my disposal whenever it comes to making reservations, adjusting my existing reservations, and just making sure my upcoming stays at Starwood properties are beyond fabulous. Vicki will even make dinner reservations or get my show tickets if I ask her too.

I’m amazed at how many companies like Dell or American Express have clearly missed the boat on customer service by pushing their call centers overseas. There is nothing more frustrating than talking to someone who clearly can’t help me with my problems and is only reading from a call script when responding to my questions or concerns. I’m not saying that all US-based companies have to keep their customer service call centers in the US. I do think that Tony Hsieh got it right though telling his customer service reps to do whatever it takes to create an unbelievable customer experience – even when that costs the company a little bit more in call time or shipping costs. Now that’s customer service!

]]> By: Jonathan Troper https://plusdelta.net/2009/10/customer-service/#comment-10 Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:23:24 +0000 https://www.plusdelta.net/?p=1019#comment-10 Zappos is amazing. Having worked in telephone banks and consulted for global call centers, I recognize how hard it is to pull this off. The cross-training was a brilliant move. It seems that when I was looking for shoes a couple of years ago, Zappos was always more expensive. Perhaps they had to bankroll the expense of wow!-level customer service.

What happens when Zappos-level customer service becomes the norm – how will companies figure out how to get even further ahead?

Of course, if that level of customer service were the norm everywhere, we’d live in a great world.

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