I really like these two stories. Why? Well as our story teller says, the first is kind of (Post Office) counter (ha ha, please, no more I can’t take it) intuitive. It has a piece of cool technology in it too. The second tale is a good example of serious expectation exceedance, rapid fire responses (being uber critical just maybe they could’ve used the one email tho?).
I live in an apartment where, when someone rings my buzzer at the front door, it connects through to my phone. When I am not at home it diverts to my mobile. I was at a physio appointment and my phone rang. It was the postman, at my front door. He had a recorded delivery for me that needed a signature. I explained that I was just about to finish off the appointment and could be home to sign for the parcel in 15 minutes. I expected him to tell me to take a hike! He said he would wait. And he did!
Completely counter my expectation of the Royal Mail, but what great agility on the part of the individual, to deliver way above expectations. It probably also saved the Royal Mail cost of putting the package through the process of getting it to the sorting office, storing it and maybe even delivering it for a second time.
Justin Hastings
A few months ago i bought a wardrobe from m&s. It was delivered and assembled whilst i was at work. When i got home i decided it would have been a good idea for me to have measured the space for the wardrobe before ordering it as the wardrobe was too big and looked daft. So phoned m&s the next day and asked them if they would take it back and could i order the same wardrobe but in the smaller size. The call centre agent said that was no problem (bearing in mind it had been delivered flat pack, their delivery guys had spent over an hour assembling it in my house and it weighed a ton) and i then put the phone down.
20 seconds later an email came through to say my credit card had been credited with a refund. 10 seconds after that another mail came through to say my credit card had been debited for the smaller wardrobe and then i received a mail telling me the collectionm and delivery date. And it all worked. Fabulous service!
And don’t get me started on first direct – best bank in the world – wonderful, friendly, polite, proactive well trained staff. And open 24hrs a day. Shame about their overdraft charges but guess that’s my problem really….
Kay Joss
I just wanted to share with you another positive customer experience that I wrote about recently on my blog: http://brunogirin.blogspot.com/2009/01/parcel-delivered-on-time-shocker.html
If you read the rest of the blog, you will find other customer experience stories (in between geeky stuff) but unfortunately rather of the negative type.