Going Above and Beyond with Customer Service

Good customer service is incredibly important, particularly now that social media has come into play. Millennial customers no longer pursue the old-fashioned route of going into the store and speaking to the customer services team, nowadays it’s all online with Twitter and Facebook! Research has shown that 67% of customers have used a company’s social media channel for customer service, and 42% of these consumers expect a response within 60 minutes! We’ve put together a list of our favourite examples of customer service so far, and how they have gone above and beyond to excel in ensuring that their customers are happy.

Morton’s Steakhouse Airport Delivery
This American steakhouse completely shocked Twitter user Peter Shankman when he landed in Newark Airport after his flight from Tampa, Florida. Before his flight, Shankman tweeted the steakhouse saying ‘Hey @Mortons – can you meet me at Newark airport with a porterhouse when I land in two hours? K, thanks. :)’. Would you believe Shankman was greeted by a Morton’s member of staff with steak, prawns, and loads of sides… free of charge! From this, companies can learn that by doing something unexpected for their loyal customers when they want it most, they can reap huge social media points!

Waterstones Lock In
Although statistics show that customers like to be responded to within an hour from the customer services department, some cases are a little more urgent to respond to than others. Customer David Willis ended up locked in Waterstones in Trafalgar Square, tweeting them saying ‘Hi @Waterstones I’ve been locked inside of your Trafalgar Square bookstore for 2 hours now. Please let me out’. The tweet racked up tens of thousands of likes and retweets and 80 minutes later Waterstones tweeted ‘We’re pleased to announce that @DWill_ is a free man once more. Thanks for your concern and tweets!’. What if they had all gone home for the day…?

Nike’s Kind Words
It can be frustrating when you’re being told off when it’s not your fault. However, an important customer service tip is that the customer is always right and you have to respect that! Nike has an excellent customer services team, with 24/7 support in seven different languages on Twitter. When one of their customers was struggling to find his order number he tweeted Nike looking for help. After a while, he realised that he knew it all along and just had to log in to see it. Nike tweeted back to the man saying ‘Happy to hear you’re back in action. Give us a shout if you need anything else’. The lesson from this is to be kind, even when it isn’t your fault!

It’s great seeing when companies are giving away steaks and other treats to their customers in order to surprise them, however we know that this isn’t sustainable! However, if your company provides excellent customer service all of the time, like Nike and Waterstones, it means that your company will remain reliable and consistent with its customers.