This past week I kickstarted some startup projects and went on a domain name splurge to secure some intellectual property. Last year I moved all my domain names to Hover and have never been happier. But since they do not offer .es domain names, I logged into my dormant Dotster account to register one. 

Uncannily as I was writing this post, designer Aaron Walter tweeted the following quote, which best sums up this entire post:

"People will forget what you said, and what you did, but they will never forget the way you made them feel." Maya Angelou

How to show you don’t care

aka my experience with Dotster

• My name is Julie, not “Customer”. Please use it. Even “Ms. Ng” is preferable. I am a person.
• So are you. Please don’t sign “Customer Care” and tell me to “feel free” to call you. I don’t even know what your name is. For all I know you’re an evil robot sitting in the death star.
• Sending a templated E-Mail response means you didn’t read my E-Mail.
• Don’t send a templated E-Mail response with directions on how to do something, e.x. retrieve order history. So you didn’t read my E-Mail and you think I am stupid. 
• Get your facts straight if you are going to tell a customer they made a mistake. And don’t be surprised when angry E-Mails with order confirmations come flying back at you.

Hover’s secret: be human

• Treat your customers like people. I love how they use my name and not just once in the “Dear Julie” way. Use it later in the E-Mail, which tells me you remember me. Ditto on the phone. I’m always pleasantly surprised when 10 minutes into a call, a rep says “Hey Julie, I tell you what…”
• Tell me your name, e.g. Diana and Bob, both of whom have helped me greatly this month. And Diana told me they love cupcakes, so I know they are definitely not evil robots.
• Admit it: “I don’t know”. That’s ok. I’d rather have you call or e-mail me back when you’ve found the answer than give me templated or empty response.

Trump the competition with customer experience

The customer and brand experience are key in today’s market. With so many offerings, companies cannot afford to match every feature and price. And some purposely don’t and instead distinguish themselves to customer in experience.

It’s one of the reason why startups like Tumblr and Moo sign system generated E-Mails with “Love, TumblrBot” or “Thanks, Little MOO, Print Robot”. It’s witty and makes me smile, but also makes me appreciate a human even more when/if I should need one.

Customer support is not an easy task. No one wants to have problems or have to deal with them. But alas they arise because we are all human. So treat your customers like people, because the other guys are going to make mistakes too. It’s how you handle them - and the customer, that can set you apart.