It’s not what you think. Outrageous in the over-the-top-way-to-go-I’m-a-customer-for-life-awesome-customer-service.
I’m outing Rent The Runway I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by their customer service. If you’re unfamiliar with Rent The Runway, they’re the hottest trend in female apparel e-commerce. You can rent designer dresses for a fraction of the price.
Anyway, here’s the nitty gritty: I ordered one dress in two sizes (you can get a second size for free if you’re in between and unsure of which is gonna fit). However, they only had one of the sizes I ordered.
I get an email from Brook, the “Director of Consumer Insights”. It’s four paragraphs long, written by her (I know, because there was emotion in the email). Profusely apologetic, she picked out another fabulous dress for me and offered to send it along, no extra charge. Also, she offered to have the dress couriered over to me. This was super nice, considering that I was already leaving work early to catch my train to Boston, and still had to go to the Village to pick up the dress. I told her where I worked, and an hour later the dress showed up. (For the record, I politely declined the second fabulous dress she offered me. No need to be gluttonous for the sake of it.)
Here’s where the actual content comes into play
Why did I just tell you this story?
No, it’s not because I want you all the love Rent The Runway as much as I do.
It’s because there’s a lesson here.
And it’s NOT that great customer service is transparency, authenticity, and follow-up. You can find a dozen people who already wrote that article. I don’t need to re-write it.
The lesson here is that the core of customer service is making your customer feel loved, accepted, wanted, and appreciated. Whatever you have to do to achieve that, do it. Pull out all the stops. Break your own policies. Make exceptions. There is no formula to creating customer loyalty. But there is a way to get it right every. single. time.
Strive for it.
Fri, Dec 4, 2009
Business, Philosophy