Saska over on Vox has a terrific post about Nintendo’s support setup, titled “Customer service gone shockingly right,” detailing her recent adventure replacing a defective hard drive in her overly noisy Wii. Well worth reading in its entirety, but there’s one part in particular I want to highlight:
So I called the Nintendo customer service telephone number, located right there on their web site (you would be surprised how many companies, and especially repair departments, don’t list their phone number on the web). The message telling me I had to wait for a CSR didn’t even finish playing before a rep was on the line. I explained my problem and she said she’d get me an RMA right away to get it fixed.
She asked for my phone number. I gave it to her. She did a bit of a verbal double-take and said, “Are you here in Washington?”
“I’m in Redmond, as a matter of fact [location of Nintendo of America's campus],” I replied.
“Well then, let’s not bother with the RMA and the shipping labels and all of that. Just bring it on in to Nintendo,” she said.
What I love about this is that it’s just common sense, plain and straightforward. Saska lives in the same city as Nintendo’s US headquarters, so of course she should be able to come on over and drop off whatever she need to get fixed. And yet it’s so unusual for a large corporation to do this that it deserves to get called out in our Hall of Fame.
Most of good customer service is about doing the obviously human thing. Most of bad customer service is about abstracting away from the human element, instead focusing entirely on the bottom line and efficiency, “closing tickets” instead of satisfying customers. Not that costs and efficiencies are to be dismissed — obviously not, since they’re critical to business success — but the best companies understand that there’s a very real relationship between how their customers feel and how their numbers look. More companies like Nintendo, please.
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