You may have seen my recent post about customer service and how not to do it, this time I thought I’d give you some examples of good customer service from my recent experiences.

The most recent one was when I had a day on the Norfolk Broads, typically it had been warm and sunny until the day that the boat was booked for and when getting things together for the trip I made sure that I had warm clothes with me.  I was very pleasantly surprised when I got to the boat yard and was offered a different type of boat that had a heater in – and even more pleased when I was told that the boat (booked until 5pm) did not have to be back until later than that.  A great example of someone thinking of the customer and offering a solution to a problem before it became a problem – well done Fineway Leisure – I would happily recommend them if you are looking for a day boat on the Norfolk Broads.

Another example of great customer service involved a friend of mine who was a Matron of Honour at a wedding.  During the final dress fitting she managed to get deodorant on the front of the dress and was obviously upset by this.  In desperation she took it into a dry cleaners near her office and asked if they could do something, explaining that the wedding was now only just over a week away and that there was a bank holiday in between now and the wedding.  The cleaners took the dress and her contact details and said that they would do what they could and tried to put her mind at rest.  Now comes the example of good customer service, at about 7pm on the Saturday of the bank holiday my friend had a text “just to let you know that the stain has come out and we are open from 8am on Tuesday”, just a simple text that has meant that the cleaners now has a confirmed customer that is spreading the word to her workmates and friends about how good they were.  If you are wondering the cleaners were Ovada in the Broadway, in Peterborough just past the old Broadway Theatre on the opposite side of the road.

And one final example, I have an old bank note from a local bank (a £5 note from Stamford Spalding and Boston bank dates 1907 – before they merged with Barclays in 1911).  I was thinking of selling this note and contacted someone that was advertising them.  The following morning I got an email saying that the person was not buying those particular notes at the moment but giving me a lot of information about the note, the bank and also suggesting a price that I should be looking  for if I do decide to sell it.  It probably took the person 2 or 3 minutes to type the information but it was so useful to me that I know that if I want to buy old bank notes in the future I will look at the banknotes4u.co.uk website first.

So you see,  good customer service comes in many forms, and need not cost you very much as a business, but the paybacks from satisfied customers will often be much greater than you could  hope – many people buy on a recommendation and if it’s a recommendation from one of  your customers think how powerful that testimonial can be.