Customer Service – The Wow Factor

I love it when I have a “wow” customer service story to share. Stories of excellent customer service are much too rare. But there is one company that’s getting it right.

I recently added a line and purchased a new smart phone at my local U.S. Cellular store. That was a good experience. But, then I experienced some problems with my new phone and my blue tooth headset. So I returned to the store. There were several people in line ahead of me, so the associate at the counter added my name to the list and I sat down and waited. I waited at least 15 minutes, keeping myself occupied by surfing the internet and checking emails on my new phone.

Nearly all of the associates were young – probably in their 20’s. In my experience, that’s usually not a good sign. Usually I can only count on good customer service when I’m dealing with the store’s owner; and that’s usually someone quite a bit older.

My name was called and a young female associate asked about the problem with my phone. After I described the problem, she determined that this was probably a “service” issue. I was a little hesitant as she walked me over to the service counter. But I was pleasantly surprised because once she introduced me to the service technician, SHE DIDN’T WALK AWAY to start helping another customer. She stayed right there the whole time, as we went through some attempts to duplicate the problem.

We determined that the problem was likely my headset, so she showed me all of my options. I told her my likes and dislikes. They didn’t have the kind I liked on display, so she found one for me in the back room. I asked if she would take it out of the package so I could try it. As you know, the packaging is quite an obstacle, but she was very willing to cut the headset out of the annoying plastic case, and even cut herself in the process. She didn’t complain once. I felt that she was there for me; not the other way around.

We all have customers — internal and external. Let’s make sure we remember that we would not be in business, we would have no paycheck at all without our customers. Let’s tell them — and more importantly– let’s show them that we are there for them. Remember that the number one reason customers choose a different provider is that they feel they’ve been treated with INDIFFERENCE! Just like the young lady at the cell phone store, let’s never hand off the customer that’s having difficulties so that we can move on to something else. The customer will notice!

So, congratulations to U.S. Cellular for stepping up and thoroughly training their staff to provide excellent customer service. I love their commercial with the skydivers with which they illustrate the point. With one hour of training you can jump out of an airplane. With four weeks of training you can fly the plane. But it requires eight weeks of training to become a U.S. Cellular associate. I wish more companies had such high standards, don’t you?

If you want to provide customer service training for your employees, contact us today!