From lifesaving to sanity saving, good customer service works

Nobody ever forgets good customer service - or bad for that matter, but today we're focusing on the positive.

Happy customers spread the word to friends, family and acquaintances with genuine enthusiasm, making great customer service a very cost-effective way to market your business.

These days it's even more imperative that you manage customer service well, as customers now widely share opinions of businesses through online reviews and social media.

This means bad service can spread like wildfire and damage reputations.

But good news stories are also shared and repeated often, especially when a business is seen to go above and beyond for a customer.

Good customer service can even save lives such as in this case of a Domino's Pizza store in the US which resulted in a happy ending and many loyal customers.

Employee Tracey Hamblen had noticed one of their regular customers, Kirk Alexander, hadn't ordered for two weeks after doing so at least every other day for years.

The restaurant manager asked a delivery driver to visit Alexander at his home to make sure he was okay. When the lights were on at his house but he didn't answer the door the driver called emergency services.

The police found Alexander in his home in need of immediate medical attention. He recovered at the hospital, but it's unlikely that he would have survived without that Domino's branch checking up on him.

This may be an exceptional situation, but it shows how superb customer service can even save a life. Exceptional service, however, need not be limited to the out of the ordinary. It can be infused into every fibre of a business and every mundane daily interaction with customers.

Customer service plays a larger role than we realise in our everyday life. When done right, a positive customer service experience leaves a warm feeling and can even subconsciously bond people to a brand, product or service.

At its core, quality customer service is about making sure your customers feel they are valued, treated fairly, and appreciated by your business.

This can especially be true with telcos, where getting through to a support line or the right person, if there is a real human at all, is often harder than necessary.

It can feel like your issue will never be resolved, especially when told they will call you back after passing you around departments.

There are exceptions to this, such as telco Pennytel, who focus heavily on giving the best customer service experience possible.

Surveying their customers regularly after an interaction with the telco, Pennytel have discovered a whopping 85 per cent of them would recommend their services to others.

The reason for this can be illustrated by satisfied customer Lyn who reviewed Pennytel on ProductReview.com.au; "I could not be happier with my Pennytel service. Great coverage, no dropouts, good download speed, excellent customer service. It is so good to actually speak to a person reasonably quickly and have problems resolved with a minimum fuss. Well done Pennytel."

When you call Pennytel there's little waiting. You'll also speak to a friendly, understanding customer service staff who will, in 94 per cent of instances, resolve your query on the first call.

With this exceptional service why would you bother looking anywhere else!

For more information call Pennytel on 1300 262 146 or go to Pennytel.com.au

This is advertiser content for Pennytel.