I’ve forgotten what the actual statistics were from my MBA
marketing course about the ratio of the number of people who receive unsatisfactory
service and tell someone about it as compared to those who tell someone after receiving
excellent service. I think it was 2:1, but I suspect in the age of Facebook and
immediate gratification provided by venting, the ratio is really much higher. These
days, we’re likely to vent publicly and praise privately.
One stat I do recall is that it takes a dozen good
experiences to make up for one bad one.
Is it just my contrarian nature that this blog is about a
bit of excellent customer service I recently received from CreateSpace? (CreateSpace,
for those who don’t know, is an Amazon subsidiary used by many independent
authors and small presses as their publishing company. I also use IngramSpark.)
Sure, you can believe that if you’d like, but you might want to think about how
implementing practices that go above and beyond would affect your life if you
implemented them.
The issue
I was selling my books at a craft show in Amasa, MI and a
mystery reader wanted to buy a copy of Bad
Policy. I went to autograph it for her and discovered that the top 3/8” had
been trimmed from the first 14 pages, cutting off the header and leaving the
pages too short. I grabbed the next book, which was fine, and completed the
transaction. Later I checked: only the one book of the order had a problem.
A cost benefit analysis would indicate I should pitch out the
badly published book rather than potentially waste a lot time dealing with a
huge corporation to receive appropriate restitution. But I knew loyal readers
of Writers Who Kill would want to know how this turned out. (Ha! If you buy
that, I have a slightly used bridge I’m willing to sell.) I’m retired; I’m over
65; we’re supposed to waste our time trying to reverse $7 charges.
The resolution
I didn’t bother trying to talk to an individual. (It was
Labor Day evening.) I completed a quick online form letting them know of the problem
and received an immediate automatic email reply acknowledging receipt.
And when I looked at my email the next morning, there was a
personalized email giving me a link to provide them with specific information:
order number, number of books affected, a print run number at the back of the
books, and a picture of the issue.
I took a picture, completed the form, sent it off, and
within the hour received another email indicating they were sending a
replacement book at no cost. I didn’t actually see that email until later in
the afternoon because I wasn’t at my computer.
Wow, I thought, that’s great. Oh crap, I thought, they’re
sending it to the wrong address. I had used a friend’s address for that order because
we were traveling from our southern to northern residence and staying with her;
now the replacement was heading her way. I sent another email to CreateSpace to
indicate the problem and provide, if it wasn’t too late, the correct address to
use.
The next morning, I awoke to another email. They were unable
to stop the package because it had already shipped. At their cost they were
sending an additional volume to my preferred shipping address.
Now THAT is going above and beyond, especially since if I
had been thinking the day before, I could have called the customer service
number they provided with each email and perhaps short-stopped the original
replacement package.
Of course it would have been preferable for quality control
to have caught the problem before they shipped me a defective book. That said,
good service would have been to provide me credit for the botched book or ship
a replacement by the least expensive means. Great service was to ship the
replacement book using expedited shipping (which is what they first tried).
They earned my Excellent Service Citation when they took on additional cost to
make sure I was not inconvenienced by their shipping the replacement to a wrong
address, even though it was through no fault of theirs.
And if anyone asks how satisfied I am with CreateSpace, I’ll
ramble on about how it’s a company that went well beyond what was necessary to
solve my problem.
Considering my personal brand, isn’t that what I would like
people to say about me, too? The next time I need to address an issue, I’ll try
to keep CreateSpace’s model in mind.
~ Jim
When I put my 7th book up last week, I had trouble with the cover because it was too many megabytes. I contacted my cover artist, and she immediately fixed the problem, and I continued on with little problems. However, when it was approved for ordering the next day, all went well until my credit card was denied. I knew it was good so I contacted Create Space asking them to call me NOW. Immediately, the phone rang and the young man walked me through how to change the credit card because I'd been issued a new one with a chip and a different expiration date. It was all done quickly and with much patience. My shipping date was to be in ten to twelve days, but three or four days later, I had all 30 books I ordered. I've always found Create Space very helpful. Once I got books that only had 8 chapters. I immediately contacted them, and within a very short time I got perfect books delivered at no charge.
ReplyDeleteCreate Space is responsive. Good to know.
ReplyDeleteGloria -- good to know you also had excellent service from CreateSpace.
ReplyDeleteCustomer service is alive and well!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate companies like Create Space that have layers of contacts, but ultimately will let you through to a real human being (who speaks reasonable English) when you really need to talk to someone. Infinitely beats the endless loops that put you back to the menu until you finally either give up (it was only $7) or write a letter.
Good to know. Congratulations to Create Space for their excellent service.
ReplyDeleteI've not used Create Space for a while and I never had a problem with them, but I do know others who have had problems and all have success stories to tell. From all appearances, it's a company that puts its consumers first. Rare in this day and age, but it does seem to be a hallmark of Amazon too. Must be in the corporate culture.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I prefer to praise than pan and I do try to take the praise public and keep the pans private. Somewhere I remember reading that every review influences 151 people. Don't know if it is true, but I have pulled that out of the brain bank at times when customer service reps are giving me a hard time. It seems to turn things around a bit.
The Bass Pro shop in Fort Lauderdale used to have a sign up in its customer service area--it read "A lot of companies tell you to go to Helen Waite with your problem. She does not work at Bass Pro. Tell us instead." I loved it!
I love your Bass Pro Shop story, Kait.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that cool. I think it took me two trips to get it.
ReplyDelete