Good Customer Service…to the Core!

It can never be overstated that when you give your employees the authority to make decisions that impact customer satisfaction, you’ll win in the long run. I’ve written about this before in more detail, but let me share a recent anecdote.

I had somehow managed to make the ‘Y’ key on my MacBook stick, and no amount of my efforts to fix it succeeded. As I need my MacBook to make my living, I knew I had no choice but to bite the bullet. I went online and made an appointment at my local Apple Store “Genius Bar” for later that afternoon. (I should stop here and say that the mere fact that I could make an appointment online and get real customer service just like that is a minor miracle these days.)

I went in, expecting to have to leave my Mac for a costly repair. The “genius” at the store fiddled with the offending key for a few moments, did some diagnostics and sighed. He then took out a piece of Scotch tape and stuck the key to the outside of the Mac. He didn’t ask, just did it, then picked up the phone and made sure that they had the parts needed to fix the machine.

I braced myself for what came next. You see, I had been complaining online (Twitter, Facebook, email) for months about a cracked case on my Mac after I was told over the phone that Apple would not–even though they admitted the case was a design defect–fix it for free. It would cost $317.05. Well, no way, I said. I’ll have a cracked Mac and think twice before buying another MacBook.

Anyway, back to the other day: I just knew the the genius at the store was going to say I would have to pay for the new case. Instead, he said “Yeah, we need to replace the keyboard. We’ll replace this cracked case while were at it.”

No charge.

And it gets better: it was ready in less than an hour.

That Apple Store genius was empowered to make a decision on his own initiative to fix the computer and make a defect in the MacBook design go from being my liability to what is rightfully theirs. In so doing he also ensured that I will definitely buy a pricey MacBook Pro when I upgrade my computer next year.

And all those Tweets I made complaining about the cracked Mac? Well, I certainly made up for them already with my Tweets and Facebook posting about how well I was treated. (“I love Apple to the core!”)

It cost so little for Apple to not only make me happy, but to ensure my loyalty and inspire me to tell the world on Twitter, Facebook and this blog.

Do you empower your employees to make these types of decisions? Shouldn’t you?