7 ms·

Exactly this. Further, I'd expand on what they are saying to say that the difference between a bad customer experience, good customer experience, and great cust

Exactly this. Further, I'd expand on what they are saying to say that the difference between a bad customer experience, good customer experience, and great customer experience typically lies in the little details and goes beyond the core offering. Great customer service orgs take the time to check up on you and make sure you are happy (and have it not be an automated effort), they bend the rules to fit an edge case, they always own mistakes and try to make it right, and they are fundamentally customer focused. Bad orgs treat customers like numbers and hide behind policy and contracts at every opportunity so that they don't actually have to deal with people. For example, I took my girlfriend to a nice hotel for our anniversary last year. When the hotel heard I was having an anniversary, they sent up a very nice hand written congratulatory card, a bottle of prosecco, and a selection of deserts on the house. That couldn't have taken them more than 15 minutes and cost them like 20 dollars, but it is something I will always remember; I will definitely return there in the future; and I recommend that hotel to any friends seeking a nice place to stay. That is great customer service. At a more basic level, I was at a mid tier hotel a few weeks ago and somehow I didn't get the room upgrade I paid for. The management immediately refunded me the difference without complaint and gave me a few drink tickets to use at their bar as an apology. That is good customer service. Contrast those to my experience at my former favorite steak house this year where for the last ten years I had been telling everyone to go. I went there for Valentine's day (had a reservation) and was told I had to wait 30 minutes for a table to open. While I was waiting, I saw multiple couples of the same size come in behind me and get seated. After the 30 minute wait, they tried to seat us at the loud and noisy bar. When I complained, they basically told me tough shit you get what you get. A reservation just guarantees you a table not a good one. I concluded that they were discriminating against us because we are younger than the average clientele there. Not only did I walk out and cost them my business, but I gave them a scathing Yelp review, and now shit talk them at every opportunity. I will never go back even though they were great every other time I was there, and instead always point friends to one of their main competitors when asked my opinion about local steak houses. I do this even though I know the competitor's food isn't as good. They could have given me the table I deserved; they could have comped some drinks or something; but no, they were right and I was wrong and so they lost a loyal customer instead.

iamaelephant 7y ago
> For example, I took my girlfriend to a nice hotel for our anniversary last year. When the hotel heard I was having an anniversary, they sent up a very nice hand written congratulatory card, a bottle of prosecco, and a selection of deserts on the house. That couldn't have taken them more than 15 minutes and cost them like 20 dollars, but it is something I will always remember; I will definitely return there in the future; and I recommend that hotel to any friends seeking a nice place to stay. That is great customer service. I'm not doubting that this is nice, but in a lot of businesses this could be all or most of their margin. You can be nice all day long but at the end of the day there has to be something left to run the business. There are plenty of ways to exceed customer expectations without running your business into the ground.
- JohnFen 7y ago
  > this could be all or most of their margin. For that particular stay, yes. But it increases the likelihood that the customer will come back and, perhaps more importantly, tell everyone they know about how awesome the place is. It's hard to see how this wouldn't work out to a net positive in the longer run.
  - lotsofpulp 7y ago
    Depend show much utility you offer and how much money your clientele have. For some businesses, the customer doesn’t value anything other than the price.
- setr 7y ago
  I somehow doubt this is the case. When a business is described as low-margin, it’s on a per-sale basis; they make $.02 on every bolt sold kind of thing. If its a functioning business, then they still make reasonable total profit due to volume of sale. So yes, if this were an additional $20 per sale it might deeply cut into their margins if they aren’t a luxury product. However, I struggle to imagine that every, or most, or even many, of a hotels sales are anniversaries, or similar kinds of events, that would deserve such additional servicing. If the total profit is $200k, a single $20 (or relatively few) instance is nothing, regardless of high or low margins. Specially servicing these rare, one-off events, is exactly how you exceed customer expectations without running your business into the ground.

iamaelephant 7y ago

> For example, I took my girlfriend to a nice hotel for our anniversary last year. When the hotel heard I was having an anniversary, they sent up a very nice hand written congratulatory card, a bottle of prosecco, and a selection of deserts on the house. That couldn't have taken them more than 15 minutes and cost them like 20 dollars, but it is something I will always remember; I will definitely return there in the future; and I recommend that hotel to any friends seeking a nice place to stay. That is great customer service. I'm not doubting that this is nice, but in a lot of businesses this could be all or most of their margin. You can be nice all day long but at the end of the day there has to be something left to run the business. There are plenty of ways to exceed customer expectations without running your business into the ground.

JohnFen 7y ago
> this could be all or most of their margin. For that particular stay, yes. But it increases the likelihood that the customer will come back and, perhaps more importantly, tell everyone they know about how awesome the place is. It's hard to see how this wouldn't work out to a net positive in the longer run.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  Depend show much utility you offer and how much money your clientele have. For some businesses, the customer doesn’t value anything other than the price.
setr 7y ago
I somehow doubt this is the case. When a business is described as low-margin, it’s on a per-sale basis; they make $.02 on every bolt sold kind of thing. If its a functioning business, then they still make reasonable total profit due to volume of sale. So yes, if this were an additional $20 per sale it might deeply cut into their margins if they aren’t a luxury product. However, I struggle to imagine that every, or most, or even many, of a hotels sales are anniversaries, or similar kinds of events, that would deserve such additional servicing. If the total profit is $200k, a single $20 (or relatively few) instance is nothing, regardless of high or low margins. Specially servicing these rare, one-off events, is exactly how you exceed customer expectations without running your business into the ground.