The Upside of “Dropping the Ball”

If your customer’s needs are your top priority, there can be a beneficial outcome for your company if you accidentally “drop the ball” when it comes to customer service. 

You will, however, only see the benefits of your blunder, if you are prepared to catch the rebound.

In business, we are all looking for perfection. We want our product to fix all of our customers’ problems. We want other products to fix all of our problems. We want the best people, the best space, the best ads. And, obviously, the best customer service.

I recently experienced one of these rebounds for myself when my fiancé and I had our wedding invitations designed by a talented artist and friend. We printed them off then took them to Staples to have them professionally cut. I didn’t look closely at them when we picked them up, assuming they were fine.

When we got home, I opened the bag to discover all 150 of my invitation were cut so that either the top, bottom, left, or right was cut off. So I had a mini melt down, as brides-to-be can tend to do, and then I had a thought: tweet about it and see what happens.

So I wiped away my tears (yes gentlemen, we will cry over ill-cut invitations) and I tweeted “Went to @StaplesCanada to get my wedding invitations cut. They are all kinds of uneven. #SoNotHappy.” and then I waited.

First I got responses from online acquaintances expressing concern for my situation. Then, a mere 10 to 15 minutes later, @StaplesCanada responded! They apologized for their mistake and gave me an email address asking me to send the details of the situation.

The person I corresponded with was genuine, apologetic, friendly, and wanted to know what I thought was a fair fix for this mishap. So I said that I thought it would be fair if Staples gave us new card stock and did the cutting of the cards again free of charge. In no time flat I got a response back, saying “Done. I will contact the general manager of that store first thing in the morning and will be in contact with you once all the details are worked out.”

Sure enough, the next day, the manager of the copy center called and said they would take care of everything for us. All I had to do was supply them with the original design. They were ready for pick up later that day, printed and cut beautifully.

So guess what I did?

I tweeted about it.

I posted it on Facebook.

I sent Jameel, the wonderful customer service rep I dealt with, a thank you email stating that the stress of the situation was actually WORTH it to get a chance to witness this level of customer service.

I told everyone I work with.

I told my family.

I told pretty much anyone that would listen.

And now I’m sharing this customer service win in a blog post.

So, in the end, for the people that were watching this unfold, how do you think Staples looked? From my point of view, they went from a business that I really had no opinion on, to one that I was disappointed in, to one that I would not only give my business to again but would eagerly recommend to other people. Even though Staples dropped the ball, they caught the rebound so smoothly that I can’t help but be impressed.

Are you confident that you have these rebound skills?