I am always fascinated by how certain companies do a great job of training employees in customer service to go above and beyond to resolve issues. This is in contrast to other companies that barely treat the customer as human and cannot get out of the way of their own processes. Regardless of whether the company is small or large, how you train and set the tone for your employees impacts the customer interactions and ultimate loyalty. Here are three recent examples of interactions I have had and how the company handled it.

Company A

I placed an online order and they shipped a different item for one of the shirts. When I reached out they apologized, told me to keep the wrong item, and sent me the correct item. A+ customer service. I have seen other companies force you to return the wrong item first before they will ship you the correct item.

Company B

I have a subscription whereby I get a quarterly book in the mail. In the past, the book doesn’t arrive 25% of the time and I have to contact them to re-send. This time when the book did not arrive, I was accused of losing the book myself. When I replied that was not the case, I was told “they are not allowed to send out replacements.” When I asked what my options were to either receive the book I paid for or cancel my subscription, I have gotten no response to my emails or calls.

Company C

I ordered a new electronic product online that was sold as “up and running in under a minute.” I tried by myself for 15 minutes, then did some online reading to troubleshoot myself for another 15 minutes, then spoke with a customer service representative for close to an hour. Unfortunately it was deemed the product was defective. When I asked about my options, I was told I could go back to the store to try an exchange but that was not guaranteed (since the manufacturer was different from the retailer) or I could mail the product back to the manufacturer for them to fix it and send it back to me (estimated 4-6 weeks). Mind you this was after I had paid for a brand new product that wasn’t working.

As you can see above, each company had their own way of handling these scenarios. Starting a business is hard, but treating customers the right way is not. You can easily control your internal processes, training, and customer support mindset to deliver exceptional customer service and make any problem turn into an opportunity to surprise and delight your customers. Trust me, your customers are paying attention and will remember how you treat them.