I had a really interesting consumer experience this weekend. The metallic skin for the battery on my MacBook Pro had begun peeling off. This was, as you can imagine, disconcerting but I've owned my MacBook for about 3 years and traveled all over the world with it. After 3 years, for something minor to go wrong did not seem unrealistic I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably have to buy a new battery and move on with my life.
I went out the the Mac Store on 14th & 9th this Saturday. As I entered I was immediately greeted by a group of concierges who proactively engaged me and asked why I made the trip. I mentioned the battery issue and before I even pulled out the computer, they were thinking about how to replace the item without charging me. Once they saw the computer, the diagnosis was a "bulging battery," which apparently is pretty common. After about 5 minutes, the new battery was loaded into my computer, no questions were asked about whether my Apple Care was still active (which it is not), and I was happily on my way.
Outside of the store, I quickly Tweeted a note to friends and followers:
@Fasciano: Apple store on w14th provides the best customer service experience I've ever seen. Replaced my battery- no questions asked - took 5 min
Yes, I work in social media. Maybe I'm not the average customer. But I still think there is a lesson here. What happened is very simple: Apple turned a bad customer experience into a really great customer experience. And for that, I wanted to tell my friends - which in effect, became positive press for their brand. And further - here I am blogging about it.
For lot's of clients, I've seen a customer service approach that is focused on putting out the fires - the "wack a mole" approach. The key to customer service in social is that true success comes from building customer enthusiasm - which easily turns into loyalty and advocacy. These goals are achieved by being genuinely helpful, teaching your customers how to take full advantage of your services and support, and proactively minimizing the time it takes to identify and service present and future issues.
Ten minutes after I Tweeted about my experience, iMacWorld was following me on Twitter. They not only made a customer happy - they also identified an opportunity to build a long term relationship with a new brand advocate.
If social is about finding customers who will find your business more customers - service and support will be the foundation of any effective social strategy in the new digital age.
