We received an email from the Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix recently apologizing for their approach to their business and its effect on their customers. The subject line: “An Explanation and Some Reflections.” Reed Hastings (Co-Founder and CEO) starts off the email noting that he has received feedback over the past 2 months that members felt Netflix “lacked respect and humility in the way [they] announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes.”
He goes on to explain what Netflix is doing and why, and apologizes for those members who felt they were treated less then well. He goes on to finish with the statement that Netflix will work hard to regain the trust of its clients and, in a P.S., notes that he has a longer explanation along with a video posted on their blog.
What a great letter! Inevitably, every company will upset customers because of something they do or don’t do; not everyone will be happy all the time. It’s all how it is handled by the company. The more responsive a company is (in this case right from the top) the increased likelihood that the customer feels listened to and heard and that the company will address the issue and correct it.
By paying attention to your customers – you can address issues early before they bubble up into huge problems that are difficult to manage. There’s also nothing wrong with acknowledging to customers you didn’t do something as well as you would have liked to or that you didn’t quite think through what their reactions might be to what was done. No one is perfect. A simple statement of sorry, we are going to do this to fix it and will be sure to do this going forward makes all the difference in the world!
How about you? What are you doing to keep abreast of how your actions are affecting your customers? How are you addressing the issues when they arise? What great examples, and not so great examples, of customer service have you seen? Please share with others in the Comments field below. Thanks!
