The Role of Customer Service in an Economic Downturn
- Comments: 6
- Written on: February 15th, 2009
Last month Schrock Innovations screwed up badly repairing a customer’s computer. Our customer had a Sony notebook and Best Buy said it would take 2 weeks for a warranty repair. The customer was going to Spain in a few days and needed the notebook. They brought it in to us for a speedy repair and in our zeal to provide a superior service experience, we fell flat on our faces.
There are only two ways for businesses to survive an economy in recession. They can lower service levels and hunker down for the economic storm or they can raise your service standards and position themselves to take customers from their cowering competition.
The way your company handles difficult situations is more important than anything else if you are working to take customers from your competitors. Here is what we did wrong, why the laptop did not make it on the plane to Spain, and why we ended up buying our customer a whole new Sony notebook on our dime. How would your company have handled this situation?
