What does having world class service mean?
Let’s say you own a business and either you or one of your employees makes a mistake.
Here’s an example from Yelp, where a business has made a mistake, but makes it up quickly to it’s customer.
“Upon the advice of the 40 Yelpers who had reviewed Carlos Exclusive Auto Service, I booked my car for a 30,000 service. The job went well - it was ready on time and at a reasonable cost. BUT … fast forward a day. I drove to San Jose and smelled burning oil. A quick look under the car tells me I have an oil leak. Filled it up with 3 quarts and it dripped straight through.
So I was towed back to SF and as it was a weekend, I couldn’t take it back to Carlos. Firestone told me that Carlos’ mechanic had sealed the ring (on the oil filter) too tight and that had broken the seal. Firestone fixed the problem but charged me $70. I also had the issue of oil all over the underside of my car - $75 to have it steam cleaned.
Guess what I did on Monday morning at 8:00am. That’s right, i called Carlos. He apologized and without prompting said he’d pay for the work at Firestone and for the steam clean. Two hours later I had a reimbursement check for $145.
World Class customer service is not about being perfect every time for every customer. No business can ever reach such a standard. World Class customer service is about recognizing that you will screw up from time to time but being willing to put it right. Immediately. Carlos nearly lost a new customer but because he took care of my issue, I can trust him and he has a customer for life.”
Having world class service would mean that you would make amends quickly, and even though you take an immediate loss, there’s a high potential in future profits not only from the customer that you made amends to, but to potential clients of yours in the future. That’s because the client that you’ve made amends to is going to tell their friends and family all about your great service, and that’s the power of word-of-mouth.