{"id":1260,"date":"2009-03-24T06:21:07","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T13:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?p=1260"},"modified":"2013-08-06T18:48:46","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T23:48:46","slug":"customer-service-a-chance-for-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/customer-service-a-chance-for-redemption\/1260\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer Service Retention Example  A Chance for Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Customer Service Retention Example &#8211; A Chance for Redemption is an article about my experience at Home Depot &#8211; what they did to respond to my dissatisfaction and what they did in an attempt to win back my loyalty.<\/p>\n<p>In a very tough economy, keeping customers happy should have more considerable weight and attention from companies.\u00a0 I had a negative customer experience recently at Home Depot, where they had a chance to redeem themselves from a very poor customer experience.<\/p>\n<p>On March 18, 2009, I went to Home Depot to buy some tools to help my son with his Boy Scout Pinewood Derby car.\u00a0 I&#8217;m completely unskilled when it comes to tools or wood carving, so I needed help.\u00a0 I asked someone at Home Depot to help, but the person I asked was very irritated at me and sent me to another department.\u00a0 At that department, the associate said: &#8220;sorry, can&#8217;t help you.&#8221;\u00a0 It turns out, I just needed sand paper and a hand saw, which my neighbor let me borrow.<\/p>\n<p>Following that experience, I sent this Tweet:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4488  aligncenter\" title=\"home-depot-tweet-customer-service\" alt=\"customer service social media\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-tweet-customer-service.jpg\" width=\"495\" height=\"317\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-tweet-customer-service.jpg 619w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-tweet-customer-service-600x384.jpg 600w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-tweet-customer-service-300x191.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 495px) 100vw, 495px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I have 296 people following me on Twitter and all my Twitter updates also updates my Facebook page, where I have 350 friends.\u00a0 So, ~600 people saw that Tweet.\u00a0 Six people responded to that Tweet on my Facebook page:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4489 aligncenter\" title=\"home-depot-facebook\" alt=\"home depot social media customer service\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-facebook.jpg\" width=\"502\" height=\"391\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-facebook.jpg 558w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-facebook-300x233.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So, negative word-of-mouth from 1 negative experience quickly reached ~600 people.\u00a0 We know from Net Promoter Score (NPS) studies that a Detractor is quite costly to a company, with some studies showing that a Detractor carries a Net Cost of at least $300 USD, not to mention the 600 people that my negative word-of-mouth reached.\u00a0 The same study shows that a Promoter carries a Net Benefit of $1,700 USD.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, this blog has 1359 Feed Subscribers and an average daily visitor count of 930 unique visitors.\u00a0 So, 1359+296+350+930 = 2935 people are quickly reached from <strong>one<\/strong> negative word-of-mouth experience.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So, 1359+296+350+930 = 2935 people are quickly reached from <strong>one<\/strong> negative word-of-mouth experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In this economy &#8212; no, in any economy &#8212; a firm cannot risk having negative word-of-mouth or risk producing a bad customer experience: not good for the customer; not good for company.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\">A Chance for Redemption<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>My original tweet above, however, caught the attention of Home Depot, to which they responded with the Tweet below:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4490 aligncenter\" title=\"home-depot-tweet-response\" alt=\"home depot customer service response\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-tweet-response.jpg\" width=\"478\" height=\"73\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-tweet-response.jpg 531w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-tweet-response-300x45.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 478px) 100vw, 478px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>My initial reaction was very positive &#8212; wow, Home Depot monitors Twitter and responds quickly to negative word-of-mouth in the Twitter stream.<\/p>\n<p>I sent @HomeDepot a direct message, containing my email address; I didn&#8217;t receive a response for a while, then I received the Tweet below:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4491 aligncenter\" title=\"home-depot-email\" alt=\"home depot customer service public relations\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-email.jpg\" width=\"528\" height=\"95\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-email.jpg 528w, https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/home-depot-email-300x53.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Tweet was followed-up with an email, which is below:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Pete  I&#8217;m very sorry to hear that you were treated so poorly.\u00a0 Which store did you visit?\u00a0 I take your experience very seriously and would like to pass your comments along to our store and local leadership.<\/p>\n<p>We are making improvements across the board, but it takes feedback from customers like you to make direct changes in specific stores, send additional resources, etc\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>Also, I&#8217;ve alerted our Customer Care team, who may contact you as well to resolve this matter and thank you properly for taking the time to give us this feedback.<\/p>\n<p>Please let me know where this happened, and if it&#8217;s a normal occurrence at that location, or something unique to this visit.<\/p>\n<p>XXX XXX, Corporate Communications Manager<\/p>\n<p>The Home Depot<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I responded to @homedepot&#8217;s email with my detailed experience on March 20, 2009.\u00a0 Since then, no feedback or response.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Lessons Learned<\/span><\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Most customers are charitable and give companies the benefit of the doubt; most customers are willing to give several chances to a company.\u00a0 I&#8217;m certainly in this camp.<\/li>\n<li>This means that, from the firm&#8217;s perspective, there is ample chance to win-back customers through simple empathy, listening, and reaching-out, not necessarily by giving of anything monetary.<\/li>\n<li>If you are going to have an outreach effort like Home Depot above, execution is key.\u00a0 This means that the initial outreach must reach a conclusion.\u00a0 This is where Home Depot fails.\u00a0 They made a good effort, but no conclusion was reached.\u00a0 I&#8217;m happy they reached-out to me, but no feedback was given regarding the negative experience I shared with them.<\/li>\n<li>Monitor Twitter, Facebook, and other social media.\u00a0 Negative word-of-mouth can quickly diffuse to millions of users.\u00a0 My single negative word-of-mouth tweet quickly reached ~600 people.\u00a0 Most likely, some of those ~600 people will not purchase or recommend Home Depot, because of my negative word-of-mouth experience.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Insult to Injury<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>One more word of advice: a customer&#8217;s 1st negative experience can be considered &#8220;injury&#8221;.\u00a0 Customer Service can take on a balming effect or it can add &#8220;insult&#8221; to the initial &#8220;injury&#8221;.\u00a0 Keep this in mind as you frame your Customer Experience strategy.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Hippocratic Oath for Customer Experience<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&#8220;Do No Harm&#8221; ought to be our mantra; &#8220;Do No <strong>Further<\/strong> Harm&#8221; is a great one to have as well.<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Customer Service Retention Example &#8211; A Chance for Redemption is an article about my experience at Home Depot &#8211; what they did to respond to my dissatisfaction and what they did in an attempt to win back my loyalty. In a very tough economy, keeping customers happy should have more considerable weight and attention from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[664],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Customer Service Retention Example - A Chance for Redemption<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Customer Service Retention Example - A Chance for Redemption shows how an outreach can lead to higher net promoter score.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Customer Service Retention Example - 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