Recently, I had two of the worse customer service interactions imaginable. No, let me take that back. I could not imagine customer service experiences as bad as these two.
One was with an international car rental company and the other was a national retailer; I do a lot of business with both firms.
After countless emails, photo documentation and phone calls, I took matters into my own hands, literally. I found the names of the entire executive leadership team and the chairman of the board. I then wrote a very nice letter with full documentation of my experience and mailed, yes, snail – mailed the letters to the companies.
In both cases, I received calls from the President’s office and both disputes were quickly resolved. But I couldn’t let it go. So I asked both of them why the rapid response? Both said that they NEVER get mail from customers, especially the entire executive team. They both asked me to provide some “learning moments” that could be shared with their customer service team and they apologized.
Never underestimate the power of the pen and the need to make customer service, personal. Not for the customer but for the company providing the service. I seriously doubt if their CFO or Legal Counsel get individually addressed customer complaints. Maybe they should.