What’s your most memorable support experience?
If you work in support, or have ever called or emailed a support team, you know first-hand that a lot of these interactions can feel similar. But what about the ones that stand out? Like that time when a customer called your manager to leave a compliment on how you handled their request. Or imagine stopping by your laundromat to pick up your clothes to find out they’ve gone missing. What about a time when a customer was someone you really related to on a personal level, and perhaps you even became friends?
I asked a few of my friends and colleagues what support experiences stood out in their minds. Some shared interactions that they themselves handled, and a few are stories of their experience as a customer. Here’s what they said:
Where I work now, we celebrate Customer Service Week every year in October. One day that week we empower the CSRs to do one “random act of kindness” to a customer that they speak to that day. The random act is to give them something for free, valued up to $25. The CSRs will share with their team who the recipient was and why they were chosen. (e.g. some customers are having a rough day, some on a budget and can’t spend as much, some are long term valued customers, etc.) It’s a powerful act to do something good for someone else and it increases employee engagement. It also makes them think of the caller as a real person. Treating people as individuals is what drives our customer first approach and this is one example of how we do that.
–– Adrienne, Director of Contact Center Vendor Management at NBTY
I was traveling abroad and some charge I made was declined. I called the bank (international long distance from Italy!) and asked if there might have been a block on my account because I was using the card internationally and they said no. I said “I’m pretty sure you just blocked a charge because I’m traveling,” and they said, “Nope, not a problem, we don’t see any issue on your account.”
Went out to dinner, used the card, and then the next day it completely stopped working. They then left me some very frantic voicemails (again, international data!) asking me to call them back and authorize the charge and open up my card again. I did that, all the while knowing I had anticipated this when I talked to them the day before. When I reminded them that I had called the day before and asked about this they said that I had “talked to the wrong person.” It was customer service! I authenticated I was the account holder? Who else should I have been talking to?
They fixed it and unblocked my card, but I asked them what I could have done to prevent that from happening again, and they said I was supposed to call them and tell them my travel dates in advance. I said this was crazy! You can see that I buy airline tickets with my bank card, so shouldn’t said bank know that I’ll be traveling internationally and that an international charge might not be a crazy thing to see on my account?
These things have since improved, but the whole situation did make me switch to another bank.
–– Fred, currently VP of Data at Kickstarter, but soon to be surfing new waves
On my way back to New York from a wonderful trip to Europe, I handled my time poorly and missed my flight. I called the airline to see if we could catch another flight to Iceland, where we had a connecting flight, but I hit a roadblock. Since I purchased my ticket through Priceline, the airline that I was flying on was unable to help.
When I called Priceline, they pointed me back in the direction of the airline, Icelandair. Trying to stay calm despite this back-and-forth, I called back Icelandair and relayed what Priceline had explained. The airline then stated that they had cancelled our reserved tickets from Iceland to New York since we missed our flight in London. My mind was blown — how could they do that if I hadn’t missed the connecting flight yet? I still had time to get to Iceland!
The airline told me I would have to purchase a new ticket, which would be about $1000 for each traveler. I spent the next few hours on a payphone in the airport trying to get either the airline or Priceline to take ownership of my ticket. Since I wasn’t getting anywhere with being reasonable and calm, I decided to try another tactic — tears and a sob story. I cried into the phone, explaining that I was a college student that had never traveled out of the country and that I certainly didn’t have the money for a new ticket home.
Finally, after hours of talking, one supervisor at Icelandair agreed to put us on a flight out of Heathrow (we were at Gatwick), departing in about two hours and we only had to pay $300 each for a reservation change. I jumped on that and thanked her from the bottom of my heart. We then had to rush to get to Heathrow airport, which was coincidently two hours away. A shuttle train later, I realized that I did not have my book bag, which held my iPad, jewelry, expensive shades, my brand new Louis Vuitton pouch that I had just bought in Paris, some clothes and some gifts I bought for my family. I had no time to go back to the airport to look for my bag, so I simply filled out a lost form and kept it going to make sure we catch our flight. Luckily I had my passport in my pocket. We made it to the airport right as they started boarding the plane and made it back to NY in one piece, and with a story to tell our friends. I thank Supervisor Ella and Hilder at Icelandair for assisting. It was just horrible that it took hours and some tears to get that help — no one wanted to take ownership of our purchased tickets. I must say they saved this customer, I will fly with Icelandair again in the future only because of those two ladies.
–– Makyra, Lead Contract Configuration Analyst at EmblemHealth
My most memorable experience hails from when I worked in the promotions department of a casino in Atlantic City. As complicated as a customer’s relationship can be with a casino, many of our older players saw us as a venue to spend their time, rather than as a place to waste money. An elderly decades-loyal customer lost her husband in the maze of slot machines one day, and while we had a (dated) system of house phones and intercom announcements to find people, the customer was determined her and I could find him together. We went on a search, and talked about what the casino looked like in the nineties, and the names of the people that used to work in my department, and how the buffet used to have the best crab bisque in the city. The husband was soon found (also accompanied by a staff member) and the search was over, but the lesson I learned is still sharp to me today. Brand=people. Every experience and interaction one has with the people of a brand is an opportunity to build the brand’s reputation, or to soil it. Beyond all other efforts –– it all starts there.
–– Adam, Analyst at Marcus & Millichap
I work at Vimeo as a Community Manager and two years ago a man maned Henry Bendinelli emailed Vimeo support asking for help with deleting videos. I received his email and tried as best I could to help him navigate his video settings. In the process of assisting him, I learned from his Vimeo account and the many videos he uploaded that he was an 89 year-old skiing, dancing, video-shooting Portland native (I’m from Portland as well). I had found a kindred spirit. By the end of our lengthy correspondence (he never did find the delete button, I ended up just deleting the videos for him) he had invited me to go skiing with him when I was home for the holidays. I accepted his invitation and, naturally, made a film about him as well.
Henry Bendinelli passed away just a few weeks ago at the age of 91. He started skiing on Mt. Hood before Timberline lodge was even built, and skied those slopes right up until the end. He skied alongside the men who brought the sport to America. He skied all over the world during WWII and the Korean War. He skied in his lifetime a distance twice the circumference of the earth. Henry was truly an extraordinary and inspiring man, and I was honored to know him. I had been looking forward to hitting the slopes of Mt. Hood with him in December. I had expected him to live, as he says in the film, to be 104. In the face of this news I can only marvel at how it is I came to know this wonderful human being and have the honor of telling his story.
–– Riley, Filmmaker and Community Manager at Vimeo
As I read these stories, I am reminded of what support is really about. It’s about listening to the person you’re speaking with (whether you’re helping or being helped), forgetting that someone is a “customer” and remembering that you have the capacity to help. It’s about connecting on a human-level. Because policies, waiting times, and refunds aside, we all have that in common.
If your most memorable support experience didn’t come to mind while you were reading this, go out and make it. We’re all in a capacity to help. If it did come to mind, share it with us!
