You know customer service is being taken seriously when your query is answered by the chief executive of the company.
That’s what happened when singer Sheryl Crow asked if anyone could help start her Tesla.
She tweeted: “Help! Who knows what to do when your @Tesla screen goes black and the reset doesn’t work? Return it and get your money back?”
Although thousands of her fans replied, one response stood out:
“Change your screen preference from night mode to auto.”
This was from Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, who went on to say:
“Night mode with 0% brightness is actually too dark during the day. This is ultimately our fault. We will update our software so that 0% brightness is always usable relative to ambient conditions.”
Immediately he had ticked three of the biggest boxes in customer care – honesty, responsibility and improvement.
When another Twitter user pointed out a reset should have remedied the problem, Musk said he agreed, echoing a pledge he made when setting up his company:
“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.”
Sheryl confirmed to her followers her issue was resolved, while nearly 20,000 Twitter users liked Elon’s advice. Result!
It’s not the only example of customer service being led from the top.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos often checks customers’ emails and forwards them to senior managers to be actioned.
He might be worth hundreds of billions of dollars, but our Jeff knows the value of listening to the people who make him his money.
Asked why it’s so vital for business, he said:
“We see our customers as invited guests to a party and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”
For anyone pursuing a career in a customer-facing role through one of the vacancies on (SITE), this highlights the importance of focusing on your relationship with your customers by treating all of them with courtesy and honesty – no matter how small their problem or how high up in the chain you are.
This is how you get to know your customer expectations and boost the company’s brand.
Of course, not all CEOs will have time to look through every email, take a call or continually engage online but they can still be vocal in making customer care flourish.
Richard Branson, the founder of the global Virgin brand and godfather of business memes, prefers to let the brand speak directly through its employees.
In a recent interview he pointed out if the person who works at your company is 100% proud of the job they’re doing, treated well, given the tools to do a good job and is proud of the brand then they’re happy…and this means the customer will have a pleasant experience. And that’s what it’s all about.
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