4 ms·

Thanks! Do you have any other examples where you've seen companies take the negative and turn it into a positive? Would love to hear them

by hajrice 14y ago

larrys 14y ago
Porsche flew a new transmission in from Germany at a cost of thousands (very heavy) to repair a defective one in new 2012 911 with only 400 miles. The new transmission was hooked up improperly by the tech (forgot to snap something in) so they had the tech return from home that night and fixed the problem. The problem wasn't even major and the car was functioning.
the_bear 14y ago
When I was first getting started, it was common for new users to find little bugs here and there. I'd generally be able to fix them within minutes of the customer contacting me, and that really impressed them. The customers who found bugs were actually happier than the ones that didn't, because the people that didn't find bugs never had an excuse to contact us, so they didn't know we offered great customer service. I used to joke with my co-founder that we should intentionally add a small bug for all new users so that we could "fix it" immediately after they reported it. We obviously didn't actually do that because it's incredibly shady, but I think it would end up resulting in happier customers in the long run.
- larrys 14y ago
  "because the people that didn't find bugs never had an excuse to contact us, so they didn't know we offered great customer service." Exactly the point I was making. Same applies to a service contract. If you offer a service contract for a price and the customer never has a problem they are less likely to renew the contract. I've noticed that the home warranty people cheerfully and quickly take care of any claims so to motivate you to renew your contract for the next year.
radley 14y ago
We do it all the time - it's YC 101. We have two Android apps and we get our share of 1-star drive-bys. Usually less than 5% of those actually follow up with a feedback. We answer EVERY user feedback including international users. I have Google Translate permanently open as a tab and reply in both English and their language. Our responses have done three things for us: - It's converted almost every 1-star we've received into a 5-star - Our users praise us with lots of 5-star ratings just for our customer service - We get far fewer impulse 1-stars. They read the comments and see that we really do follow up and fix things so they try that first. I've also handled many very angry emails. With those I take time to explain fully what's going on as passively and politely as I can. Every one of those has turned around positively. Finally, we don't like to say stuff like "Really sorry that you had to experience that". These days that sounds like the insincere spin we hear from big companies. We just get to the point and use a happy emoticon. I only apologize if it fits the mood.
- hajrice 14y ago
  Wow. That's amazing. You guys should blog about this. I can imagine the results on the return of doing this must be astonishing :)
sachitgupta 14y ago
GrubHub: I tried to unsubscribe but the link was broken. I sent them an email, and within minutes got an email back saying they had unsubscribed me. Amazing response time and solved my problem!

Thanks! Do you have any other examples where you've seen companies take the negative and turn it into a positive? Would love to hear them

by hajrice 14y ago

Thanks! Do you have any other examples where you've seen companies take the negative and turn it into a positive? Would love to hear them

larrys 14y ago

Porsche flew a new transmission in from Germany at a cost of thousands (very heavy) to repair a defective one in new 2012 911 with only 400 miles. The new transmission was hooked up improperly by the tech (forgot to snap something in) so they had the tech return from home that night and fixed the problem. The problem wasn't even major and the car was functioning.

the_bear 14y ago

When I was first getting started, it was common for new users to find little bugs here and there. I'd generally be able to fix them within minutes of the customer contacting me, and that really impressed them. The customers who found bugs were actually happier than the ones that didn't, because the people that didn't find bugs never had an excuse to contact us, so they didn't know we offered great customer service. I used to joke with my co-founder that we should intentionally add a small bug for all new users so that we could "fix it" immediately after they reported it. We obviously didn't actually do that because it's incredibly shady, but I think it would end up resulting in happier customers in the long run.

larrys 14y ago
"because the people that didn't find bugs never had an excuse to contact us, so they didn't know we offered great customer service." Exactly the point I was making. Same applies to a service contract. If you offer a service contract for a price and the customer never has a problem they are less likely to renew the contract. I've noticed that the home warranty people cheerfully and quickly take care of any claims so to motivate you to renew your contract for the next year.

radley 14y ago

We do it all the time - it's YC 101. We have two Android apps and we get our share of 1-star drive-bys. Usually less than 5% of those actually follow up with a feedback. We answer EVERY user feedback including international users. I have Google Translate permanently open as a tab and reply in both English and their language. Our responses have done three things for us: - It's converted almost every 1-star we've received into a 5-star - Our users praise us with lots of 5-star ratings just for our customer service - We get far fewer impulse 1-stars. They read the comments and see that we really do follow up and fix things so they try that first. I've also handled many very angry emails. With those I take time to explain fully what's going on as passively and politely as I can. Every one of those has turned around positively. Finally, we don't like to say stuff like "Really sorry that you had to experience that". These days that sounds like the insincere spin we hear from big companies. We just get to the point and use a happy emoticon. I only apologize if it fits the mood.

hajrice 14y ago
Wow. That's amazing. You guys should blog about this. I can imagine the results on the return of doing this must be astonishing :)

sachitgupta 14y ago

GrubHub: I tried to unsubscribe but the link was broken. I sent them an email, and within minutes got an email back saying they had unsubscribed me. Amazing response time and solved my problem!