My son has food allergies. No dairy, no peanuts, no egg. On more than one vacation, he has been accidently exposed to an allergen through cross-contamination or kitchen staff not realizing casein is a dairy ingredient. However, we have never had a problem when visiting Walt Disney World.
We just visited again in June and despite an economic climate where “staycations” are becoming the norm and cost cutting would be understandable, the customer service again exceeded our expectations. At Disney, my son gets a personal visit and gourmet creation from the head chef in every restaurant — even the cafeteria-style burger and hot dog shops.
At one restaurant, the chef even brought out a package of allergen-free chocolate chip cookies so we could order them direct from the manufacturer after we returned home. That wasn’t part of some script, but an employee feeling empowered to be creative in making the customer happy. That’s value that earns my loyalty and word-of-mouth promotion — not to mention blog coverage.
Disney isn’t the only business that has turned creative customer service into marketing magic. I recently read an interesting article in Advertising Age about Zappos, the 10-year-old online shoe retailer that was recently acquired by Amazon for $880 million in cash and stock. It asks, “Is Customer Service a Media Channel?”
What’s particularly interesting about Zappos is that they treat customer service as a marketing expense, providing service reps the creative freedom to keep customers happy. This has led to a lot of positive chatter about Zappos on social networks and blogs, hence the “media channel” question raised in the Ad Age article.
The importance of customer service is the great unifier of all companies. And, I think B2B organizations can learn something from Disney’s and Zappos‘ customer-service-as-marketing approach. Particularly as the recession shows signs of easing and companies look to accelerate growth in the recovery.
The next time marketing plans are being crafted, why not have the creative team devise ways to keep existing customers happy? Zappos’ customer reps often surprise repeat customers by upgrading them to free overnight shipping. What simple, creative gestures will delight your customers?
If you have an answer to that question, please share it here to help get everyone’s creative juices flowing.
Ron Loch
July 31st, 2009
July 31st, 2009