Saving Your Business is Worth $20


Julie's phone went haywire last month. After visiting a local Verizon kiosk, a young employee diagnosed the issue and promised a new purple replacement within one week.

Four weeks later, the package finally arrived.

In this cavern:


And in gray.

Since the original battery, which was purple, needed to be transferred to the new phone, she decided to make a second trip to Verizon. You know what? That same employee offered to mail the cavern on his own and at his expense, ordered the purple replacement to be Fed-Ex'd by today (It arrived this morning, less than 24 hours later), and, to top it off, gave her twenty bucks.

I should clarify: Julie didn't cause a scene or enter the store with mascara-lined cheeks. This kid just recognized a customer in need of frustration diffusion. (Or else he was flirting, in which case I'm sending Julie to Customer Service from now on.)

The amount of money seemed arbitrary to me, but that's what left the biggest impression on her. Sometimes saving your business is worth $20.

Related Verizon posts:
Verizon and World Vision: Marketing Partners
"Is My Map in the Way?"

5 comments:

Karyn September 24, 2010 at 9:31 AM  

Smart kid! So funny that you're going to send Julie to Customer Service from now on!

Jeff Rogers September 24, 2010 at 7:43 PM  

So the kid redeemed a major screw-up and turned it into a memorable example of over-and-above customer service. Fascinating. I wonder when in training they cover that at vzw. Thanks for passing it along!

Unknown September 24, 2010 at 8:04 PM  

I'm just not sure he would have given it to me, Karyn.

Jeff, thanks for stopping by. I think they cover that in the "What To Do When You Screw Up" seminar. It works.

Douglas Dahl September 25, 2010 at 10:18 AM  

That is just a great story. Wow. Humanity and individual responsibility has not disapeared from all of corporate america. Having had some very frustrating beauroctratic customer service experiences with Verizon...this is encouraging

Unknown September 25, 2010 at 9:29 PM  

That was the sense Julie got, Doug: The kid took individual responsibility and treated her with dignity.

Maybe - like Jeff mentioned - he was trained, but we were pleased with the results.

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