A month ago I posted about Ben McConnell's maddening Apple customer service experience in the wake of his iPod going AWOL during shipping. Here's an update:
Church of the Customer: Everything is marketing
While my evangelism for Apple's customer service is renewed (I was a customer beginning back in 1986), I now look forward to buying an iMac with this hope attached to it: That all of Apple's front-line customer service agents tackle cases with the bloodhound-urgency of Arin.
It's also a lesson...
For us as customers and as people. Don't like the treatment you've gotten from a company? Going mental due to "press 1" runaround? Make yourself heard. Keep at it. Have a website? Post about it. Don't have a website? Email me. Or Church of the Customer. Or any of the loads of business and customer service bloggers. It pays off.
For companies. Get involved. Get in touch. Talk to people. Respond to complaints, and do so personally, not through form-letter rot. Do all you can to make things right, and keep that customer in the know every step of the way. You won't just make them happy — you'll regain their trust, and most likely their business.
Props to Apple. Unlike Ben, I won't be getting an iMac — but I do feel much more confident about saving my pennies for an iPod.
