Recently I had to deal with a situation that many of my clients have me deal with for them. My iPhone said “No Service” on the screen. The bill was paid. My husband’s phone (on the same plan) was acting normally. I could connect over my wireless network. I did a reset. I had to see clients, so I figured that it would come back on during the day and went off to save the world, one Apple product at a time.
But the iPhone still said “No Service” at 4:30 pm that day.
I then called Customer Service. Yes *I* called Customer Service.
A very nice-sounding young lady walked me through all the normal trouble-shooting items (in case I had missed one), then looked it up on her system and told me that apparently AT&T’s servers had sent out a code that was not fully loaded on my phone. She would put in a special request that they attempt again, and have a technical rep call by 10:00 am the next morning to confirm that everything was working correctly. This was important, as I had to take pictures of my chorus the next afternoon and send them out quickly – from that iPhone!
The tech rep never called.
So, when I got back with an iPhone full of pictures, I sync’d it to my Mac, then again called Customer Service, fully expecting another round of frustration. I had now been without service for over 30 hours! (Yes, dear clients, I too can “feel your pain.”)
Imagine my surprise (and amusement) when a perky-sounding rep named Joe guaranteed me that he could fix my problems and do everything in his power to make me a happy customer! And over the next three hours, he proceeded to do just that! It involved me having to go to the local AT&T Store to get a replacement SIM card, and many troubleshooting steps on both our parts, but three hours and a hefty credit on my account later, I am a happy customer!
Joe could have taken any number of other approaches, but he chose to take it on as his responsibility to button up every last detail of the failed service. He used the tools at his disposal to work through the service issue: the total lack of service, then the lack of internet access and visual voice mail, the hours that my phone was out of commission – all the while maintaining a friendly and tech-to-tech conversation through the entire duration.
This, in my opinion, is what I call “Delivering WOW,” thanks to the fact that I just finished reading a book called “Delivering Happiness” by Tony Hsieh, where he tells of the core values at Zappos.com, and how they developed over time. I recommended the book to Joe, because he needs to read how his personal choice made a big difference to me, and I recommend it to you.