Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash
A blog reader from Illinois shared the following story of an interaction with Amazon.
Real World Story: I had the absolute best customer service with Amazon and would like to share it with you.
My son, 28, lives in Austin, Texas. He called me this past Wednesday morning to let me know he was in an accident and had ended up in the hospital. He had suffered multiple facial fractures, one of which affected his jaw, which had to be wired shut for two months. When I asked the doctor how I was to get nutrition into my son, he suggested drinks like Ensure and a few others. I logged onto Amazon right away, ordered 4 different types of nutritional and flavors of drinks and also selected a waterpik® because my son could not floss or brush the inside of his mouth. I had my online purchase delivered directly to his apartment in Texas.
I later received a confirmation email that my package had been delivered, but my son said it had not. I eventually realized I had it sent to the wrong address! I logged back on to Amazon, initiated a chat with a representative, admitted the situation was completely my mistake and asked if there was any way they could help me. The representative asked me to enter the correct address on my account and to then confirm with him. Once I did, he said he was giving me a full refund, so I could order again.
I cannot tell you how grateful I was at that moment! I don’t care how much money Amazon makes; they helped me in a great time of need. The only problem I have is they make it a bit challenging to find help, and there is no telephone number to call, only the chat feature.
My chat conversation happened on Thursday and by late Friday, the refund was in my Amazon account as a gift card.
— Shirley Tracey, DTM
Strategies that Turn it Around:
- Realize your company isn’t too big to care. Most people consider companies, of all sizes, to be too big to care about anyone or anything other than the bottom line. So it is up to us on the frontlines of customer service to show the heart and pulse of the companies in which we work.
- Realize you’re not too small to make a difference. As frontline workers, especially in large companies, we need to know we are not too small to make a difference in the lives of the people we serve. We are the face of our companies. We matter and what we do matters, with each and every customer transaction.
Remember: Just because a company is big does not mean it is too big to care about customers. And as we work on the frontlines of customer service, it is up to us to do the small things that make big differences in the lives of our customers.
What do you do to ensure your organization is not too big to care about its customers?