What Is Customer Service?
What is customer service? Is it only when things are GOOD that customer service works? What about when things go WRONG? A few days ago the Hostgator websites went down. I went to look on Twitter and other social sites to see if they had given an explanation or a time when it would be fixed. Go Daddy has done that in the past when they were down. (And they were down for quite some time.)
Hostgator down – What is customer service doing?
It was early morning when I realized some of my sites were down including this one and I started to tweet about it. There was no response from Hostgator. I’ve loved Hostgator, when I use their tech support via chat or phone they are excellent and are there 24/7. I could not access their tech suport as their servers were down too. I thought it was odd. Why wouldn’t they talk about it or share the info? It just gave us users of their services more time to get mad.
“@lisapatb: @m4rkdavies NO haven’t seen any communication from #Hostgator yet”Mmm not good is it?
— Mark Davies (@M4rkdavies) February 5, 2013
“@lisapatb: @m4rkdavies I’m up, you?” Yep @hostgator back up and fine now. Thanks for letting me know.
— Mark Davies (@M4rkdavies) February 5, 2013
The time lapse lasted about an hour. But that hour gave their customers a lot of questions. What happened? Would it be fixed? Many websites were down. A little customer service would have put their customers minds at ease. I even received a thank you email from a business owner in England about my tweeting the Hostgator situation. He had many websites hosted on Hostgator that he depended on to earn money. (He also said my tweets were entertaining, really?)
I learned this about customer service a long time ago when I made a major mistake on an advertisement that was already printed prior to distribution. I let the customer know the day prior so they could do damage control. They appreciated it and stayed with me. If I had not they would have been enraged the day it came out and saw it on their own. (been there too, not good!)
What does good customer service mean to you?
- Answers when called – That’s an excellent start when you can actually reach someone. Or if they return your call within minutes.
- Calls you when things go wrong – Many credit card companies do this now when there is strange activity on your account.
- Goes beyond your expectations – The restaurant who did not cook something well replaces your meal and takes it off your bill.
- Promises kept – If they deliver what they promise, is it just expected or is that good customer service?
There are times though when companies have to be careful. Since being involved selling online I’ve learned some customers are out there to try to put one over companies. They think companies are not human and are just full of money. They will try multiple ways to rip companies off. How far should a company go to give the customer the benefit of the doubt?
What would you consider good customer service from a company?
I’d love to hear your experience about a great customer service situation or a poor customer service experience.
*I still love Hostgator for their 24/7 tech support - I just wish they had informed us better when their servers were down.
