Part 2 of 2

In this second article of a two part series about how going the extra mile for your customer isn’t hard to do, we take a look at call center customer service example (part one is an in-store example).

I was having problems logging into my IRA late one night, so I wasn’t sure what kind of help I’d get with the company’s customer service, but I thought I’d go ahead and give them a call.  After validating that I did indeed have a problem the agent asked if I could hold while he tries to find someone on his team who has seen the problem before.  No problem, I say.  Sounds good, I’m thinking!

Call Center phone service

After a few minutes he comes back on and informs me that IT will need to address this problem, and they are not in until the morning, but if I would like to wait he could try just in case the night crew can fix it.  Would I like to hold?  Sure.  A few minutes go by and he comes back on the line just to say; “I’m still trying to find someone to help.  Would you like to continue to hold?”  Sure!  I’m starting to really like this guy.

After a few more minutes he comes back and apologizes that there was nobody available to solve the problem as the night crew doesn’t have the necessary access.  However, at this point he puts notes into his system to explain the issue and what he did for me.  I can hear him typing.  When he is done, he reads me his notes to verify them with me, and gives me a direct line to the IT help desk that I can call in the morning – which, of course, I don’t do for four more days!

When I called, they looked me up and I’m told (very cheerfully) that they found me and have read the notes left by the prior service agent, and would I hold please?  Sure!  A few minutes later they are back on the phone, and “it’s all fixed!”  I asked if they would hold while I checked it out, which she cheerfully did, and all worked out perfectly.

I didn’t have to repeat what I had done when I called previously, I didn’t have to “re-prove” that the problem existed, and the problem was simply taken care of.  That fellow the first night could have just told me to call back during normal business hours, but he made it easy for me, and I was very happy when I got back into my IRA account!

This is just another example of going the extra mile for your customer that also exemplifies our Principle 9, of making it easy for your customer to do business with you.  The customer service agent apparently didn’t have a metric to meet that encouraged him to get me off the phone so he could meet a need to handle x number of calls per hour, and instead helped to solve my problem for me as easily as possible.

When you create the right customer service attitude, it is easy to go the extra mile for your customer!  Going the extra mile for your customer is not really difficult, but if you and your employees take the attitude that it is My Service First that matters most . . . you make it an attitude that will help you stand out among your peers.

Which other principles of putting My Service First do you find in these experiences?