The Meaning of Good Online Customer Service

Yes, obviously good customer service is the kind where you order something online, pay for it, and a few days later it arrives, looking as beautiful or better than it did in the picture, and you forget about the transaction and continue to love whatever it is that you bought. However, that is not memorable customer service. It just means you won’t not order from them again, it doesn’t mean that they deserve extra commendation or your hatred.

I have, over the last few days, come across what I believe to be great customer service, and yes, it did result from a mistake, but this is the kind of customer service I will remember in the future, which I am using now to recommend a vendor, and which will make me want to order from her again in the future.

Remember in that post last week when I ordered that beautiful red spindle from dragoncraft on etsy?

Ok, well, here’s what happened and why I have decided that she’s got fantastic customer service.

I live in a dorm on a college campus. I therefore can only get packages when the post office is open. The package arrived Saturday morning, so I didn’t actually GET the package until today (Monday). Anyway, Sunday night I got a conversation from her that she accidentally mixed up the orders and that I had been sent someone else’s spindle. She offered to refund me $5 and gave me the choice of sending the spindle back to her or sending the spindle directly to the other person. For simplicity’s sake, I decided to send it directly to the other person. However, since the spindle comes with free roving, I wasn’t sure if I should send the roving too, or if we were just going to keep the roving we got sent and only send the spindle. So I asked. She wasn’t sure what the other person was going to do, so she told me to send the roving and that she’d send me another piece of free roving just to make sure that I ended up with some in case the other person didn’t ship it to me. Then, and here’s where it’s great, she offered to dye me my very own roving in any color I wanted. She said that I could have it for the additional effort and waiting time in getting the spindle.

That is what makes great customer service. When something goes wrong, even without the customer asking, you go out of your way to make sure they are not only satisfied with, but impressed with your service. That is how I feel right now. I don’t have my spindle yet (I’m shipping out the wrong one tomorrow and should get the right one later this week), she messed up, and I still feel intense loyalty to her as a vendor. I would definitely shop with her again.