At this point if you're not trolling the internet for the next virtual beatdown of your company, you're asking for it. Blogs, forums, and other electronic hangouts are bastions of negativity for large companies, but that doesn't mean that people are willing to forgive you for mistakes.
Today Netflix demonstrated that they know exactly how to keep consumers happy when after an 11 hour shipping delay they immediately sent an email to the affected customers and offered a 5% credit to the account. Most people didn't notice the impact of the delay, but they certainly noticed the email. Consumerist writes that they turned a potential bump in the road into an instance to rave about the company.
“(Netflix) perfectly followed the three-steps of fixing customer service problems:
1. Admit fault, quickly.
2. Say sorry like you mean it.
3.Give conciliatory gift of monetary value."
Now instead of angry consumers, notes like this one sent to the Consumerist are all over blogs and forums:
“Got this message in my inbox today....apparently Netflix had some shipping problems and they delayed the shipment of my movie by one day. Big deal, right? I probably wouldn't even have noticed it, since I barely have time to watch my Netflix movies anyway. Well, Netflix still found it appropriate to give me a credit on my account because of the problem. Apparently they think that *they* should be the ones to be charged late fees, not their customers! Just another reason that I give them my business instead of Blockbuster.”
So many companies have messed up in this department that this is major news that is shoring up the confidence of current customers and undoubtedly attracting new ones. Who knows how they would respond to a more serious issue, but for now, score one for Netflix.
(From Consumerist)
Cool!! same goes with restaurants etc that offer or waive a dish if it's late :)
Keeps us happy!
Posted by: Mike | March 27, 2008 at 01:57 AM