Subject: An Experience with Safari
From: Ian Stoba
On the Thursday before the 4th of July long weekend, I convinced my boss to cave-in to my long-standing request for a Safari subscription. I went to the web site, filled in the form, put in my company-issue American Express card number, clicked Submit, and . . . got an error message.
Surprised that the purchase didn't go through, I called the 800 number for customer service. My call was answered after one ring by (shockingly!) a human who explained to me that they were having trouble processing AmEx payments that day, but he would go ahead and open my account and process the credit card again on the next business day (the Monday following the long weekend). Two minutes later, I notice an email in my In box with the account details. I completed the setup and started browsing for books.
I don't want to be overly pedantic, but I think it's worth pointing out the things that went right in this transaction:
The clear failure. OK, so maybe having trouble processing a credit card purchase is not something that went right, but a clear and obvious alert was displayed and within moments I had a toll free number available to call for more information.
The rapid response. I deal with a lot of vendors and one of the things I have come to expect from all of them is an annoying time pushing buttons to amuse the extended call processor. In this case, after just one ring I reached a human.
Not just any human; the right human. Having human contact on the phone was certainly reassuring, but this kind human was knowledgeable enough to take care of the problem. Without ever transferring me or putting me on hold, he was able to understand and resolve my problem. This involved understanding what was going on with the credit card, having access to the order processing system, and actually having the ability to generate an account and schedule the payment for four days later. At most retailers, this would involve three or four different departments, half a day on hold, and at least three dropped calls. For me, this took about two minutes.
Trust. Not to pick on anyone in particular, but do you think Amazon would agree to ship me ten expensive computer books and try running my credit card again four days later? I know that if I were selling something on eBay, I wouldn't be very likely to send off anything before being paid in full. Still, you let me enjoy a geeky long weekend reading densely packed, informative tech books. My family may not thank you, but I certainly do!
So, I realize this is long, but I really wanted to say what a great experience it was getting this subscription from you. Many other businesses could stand to learn that putting well informed and capable people in front of customers earns loyal, repeat business.
Thanks again,
Ian
P.S. Even before getting the Safari subscription, I owned nearly my own weight in O'Reilly books. My spine is already thanking you for the much lighter backpack I now carry home every night.
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