It's not about the mistakes you make but how much you treat people like people

For those of you that don't know (or don't live in NY), I'm a huge fan of VillageVines. They let me book a reservation at many of the coolest restaurants in New York for $10 and when I show up the restaurant gives me 30% off my whole check including alcohol without any coupons! It's a pretty sweet deal and Magda and I use it quite often to go out on date nights.

On Saturday night I had a lot of people in town visiting. Friends from Philadelphia, another from New Jersey (gross) and my grandparents from Pennsylvania. So I did what any other sane person should do when he needed dinner for 8 people... I booked a reservation at one of the cool spots on VillageVines. It recently opened in midtown and it's called Serra Bistro.

We showed up a bit before 7:30pm and this is where it got interesting. The host/manager was very friendly. Our waiter came over and asked what we'd like to drink and then realized we had no wine list. When he returned with them I ordered two bottles. He brought them over and opened them both, put the cork back in one and then walked away. No tasting or pouring. We did this ourselves instead.

There were a number of other issues with the meal. Two dishes came out wrong. Another was not at all what the waiter had explained to us but what happened next is what saved the meal and turned all 8 of us into fans of the place.

After the manager realized what was going he walked over and apologized. He told us the waiter was new and that they would be sure to take care of us. Next the owner stopped by and said the same thing and brought us a bottle of dessert wine. He poured it for everyone and left the rest of the bottle for us to enjoy, on the house. After this the executive chef came out. He brought us four desserts that were all out of this world. One of them was especially creative with a giant dome of drizzled sugar. They didn't stop there though.

As I ooo'd and ahh'd at the sugar dome the chef asked if I'd like to see how it was done. He invited me back to the kitchen to check it out and even let me try to make one (I failed). When I walked back out he followed me and then showed the whole table how it was done. The owner brought over a candle and placed it in the middle to make it all even prettier.

Now some would say that the free dessert wine and the desserts would be what turned the meal around but it wasn't that at all. It was the fact that the people that worked there cared enough about us to try to turn the meal around. And they succeeded. The treated us like real people and gained 8 new customers that will come back (and however many people I can send over there). They turned a bad experience into a good one by being nice.

No matter how bad you screw up just make sure you take the time to think about who was affected and how you could make it just a little bit better. An honest sorry goes a long, long way.

Two recent examples of seriously great customer service...

I want to share two examples of exemplary customer service that I've received in the past week:

United Airlines

I know a lot of people have terrible stories to share about airlines but I want to share one that left me feeling warm and fuzzy (well, sort of -- you'll see). I was on a UA flight last Friday evening (it was actually purchased through Continental) on my way from San Francisco to Newark International.

The evening began with very friendly gate agents. They had a sense of humor, shared with everyone that the flight would be full and offered to gate check any large luggage for free if people didn't want to deal with it on the plane. Second, the boarding process was fast and painless. I had my boarding pass on my cell phone (the marvels of technology) and they scanned it at the gate with no problem and sent me on my merry way.

But the best part of the experience was when I was seated on the plane. I asked for a blanket and the flight attendent apologized and said that they had no blankets on this flight as someone had messed up when reloading the plane. I said thank you a pulled out a jacket instead. Three minutes later, the same guy was walking down the aisle handing out a small card to everyone on the flight. When he got to me, he said, "Again, we're really sorry we have no blankets. Please take this card, go online when you get home and enter this code into our web site and receive a gift as a token of our appreciation that you're flying with UA."  

When I got off the plane, I immediately took out my phone and entered the code. To my surprise, United offered me $100 off my next flight! I was shocked that they were proactive and that they offered such a large coupon simply because they had no blankets on the plane. I hope that they continue to do this for their customers and that other airlines follow suit in the future.

QualityHostingOnline.com

I've been a fan of QHO for a long time. Below is an example of quality customer service from an online chat rep.  I was expecting a ticket to be opened and waiting for four hours until a tech could resolve my issue.  Boy was I surprised!

You are now chatting with Pete (Customer Support)

Jesse Middleton: When I attempt to go to one of my domains (under my reseller account), I see an error that says: Your connection to this server has been blocked by the server firewall.
Please contact your hosting provider for further information and support.
Your blocked IP address is 76.99.xx.xxx
Pete: Hello , This is Pete from Tech Support .How may I help you today ? 
Jesse Middleton: I think I may have tried the password wrong a number of times.
Jesse Middleton: I realized this now but now it seems I'm blocked.
Jesse Middleton: I'm even having trouble getting to the Web Host Manager.
Pete: Please let me know the domain name 
Jesse Middleton: The reseller account is named: gicserv
Jesse Middleton: The domain name that isn't loading is pillmelater.com
Pete: please hold on. Let me check it
Jesse Middleton: Thank you.
Pete: Temporary Blocks: IP:76.99.xx.xxx Port: Dir:in TTL:3600 (lfd - *Port Scan* detected from 76.99.xx.xxx (US/United States/c-76-99-xx-xxx.hsd1.pa.comcast.net). 11 hits in the last 66 seconds)
Jesse Middleton: Yes, I apologize for that. :)
Jesse Middleton: I had two FTP apps open and they were fighting for access.
Pete: Please make sure you computer is not infected with any kind of viruses that is triggering a port scan
Jesse Middleton: Nope, I know it was me.
Pete: I am unblocking the IP. Please stand by
Jesse Middleton: Thank you very much.
Pete: The Ip has been unblocked now
Pete: Please try
Jesse Middleton: You're the best. It works now.
Pete: You are welcome. 

The power of amazing customer service

I don't know how many of you have moved to a new city and were in need of new physicians but my wife and I found ourselves in that spot only 7 or 8 months ago.  We moved from Philadelphia (where we had great doctors) to New York City to join the LivePerson Nation and we needed to find new family care and a good dentist.  I had heard of a site called ZocDoc, which allows you to find doctors, read reviews, choose a time and get to your appointment without ever picking up the phone or waiting on hold. I decided to hop on their site and give it a whirl.

After only 10 minutes of searching for the right doctor/doctor's office I came across One Medical Group.  I booked my appointment, got an email and text reminder and was in and out of that visit in record time.  It was one of the most pleasant experiences at a doctor's office I had ever had.

Fast forward a few months later and I am now facing having my wisdom teeth removed.  I went ahead and found a great dentist, Dr. Sarin, on ZocDoc again.  I booked the appointment for the following morning.  That evening Dr. Sarin called to ask me if I could push the appointment back by an hour.  I said yes and showed up for my appointment about twenty minutes early the next day.  Not only were his office assistants pleasant and helpful but he even came out and apologized for pushing the appointment back again and for me having to wait a few minutes.  I considered that excellent service.  But my pleasant medical experience didn't stop there...

Finally I got a call in the afternoon following my appointment from Cheryl at ZocDoc.  She also apologized for me having to push my appointment back (it was no bother to me and surely not her fault) and offered me a $10 Amazon gift card for the inconvenience.  I have never in my life had such an amazing experience with both an online service and a doctor's office (which are many times notoriously slow and unfriendly). 

After all of this rambling the point of the post was to let you know about ZocDoc and how helpful they can be.  They offer their services in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, DC for now.  If you're in one of these areas I highly recommend you try out their service.  Let me know how your experience goes.

Transparency = Good

I got an email this morning from a small company that we use and I have to say, I'm happy about it.

We use ZenDesk for a number of groups at work to track what and how we're doing when it comes to small projects and we find the tool immensly helpful.  It ties in with Active Directory for single sign on and it sends email alerts to all the parties involved to keep them updated on what's going on.

I'm obviously not thrilled with the hike in price (no one really would be) but I am thrilled that they were so transparent about this change.  The email was concise and the reasoning behind the price jump was made abundantly clear.  They even linked off to both their TOS (something Facebook might want to think about more often) and a quick FAQ.

Finally, they did two things that others need to learn to do.  They let me down gracefully and they shared their contact information right there in the email.  They weren't looking for user feedback as to whether or not the price should go up, they simply offered a way to slow down that jump while getting more customers to lock into the product.  It's both smart and friendly and that makes me a happy customer.

So for all of that, I say: Thank you ZenDesk.