Proactive Customer Service Part 3

After I wrote my first post on this topic, I got some great feedback about Proactive Service from a number of different people. Some executive leaders from the retail space, the automotive space and from the media and entertainment industry chimed in about what they think. One response in particular stood out for me and I wanted to share the story here. I think this, just like my airplane story, is a great example of a company doing it right. Understanding what customers want and respecting them by keeping them "in the know".

I asked this executive if I could share their comments on my blog and they gave me permission. So below you will find the word for word account of what real life Proactive Service is:

"I think keeping people abreast of changes is critical. We had an 88 count fiber that got cut due to a farmer knocking over a pole in his field. This took down service for 2 headends and about 4000 customers and was not going to be an quick fix. This could have been disasterous for our hold times and queues but instead we posted updated messages for customers calling in every 2 hours and notified them that after we determined final outage duration we would be providing a blanket credit. We were able to keep our ASA to less than a minute and avoided any disconnects. Addressing issues before they become customer impacting is the best approach particularly as this industry has started to become commoditized and we need to use customer service as a differentiating factor."

In my opinion, these guys did it right. They kept their customers in the loop, updated them when possible and made sure they communicated that the customers would get a credit.

And what did they get to show for it? Nobody disconnected their service.

Great story about how treating people with respect by keeping them informed can make a huge impact on a business.