My friend, Lucy, recently contacted me about something she described as a “lovely kindness experience”. I think sometimes we can take great customer service for granted, even as we complain bitterly when we don’t get it. So it was nice to hear about an experience described in these terms.
“I had a long, messy problem with an online clothing order. It was a catalogue of errors.
“It took ages to arrive, one item was missing, in its place was a random item I hadn’t ordered, another item had a mark on it. Everything was thrown haphazardly into the bag.
“To top it all, there was no clarity about how to do returns.”
Lucy wrote an email to customer services, saying she had very little hope of a response. The reply she received (within 24 hours) blew her away and led to the declaration of kindness.
“It was written by a real human, there were even some typos! I really loved the way she took a very nice way of responding, showing empathy and using phrases like ‘I can understand why you feel this way’ and ‘I would feel the same’. She really showed empathy.
“She dealt with all the issues I had raised one by one and asked for my patience while she investigated and put things right.
“I fed back about the wonderful experience and I really hope she gets the praise she deserves.”
So well done to Helen from M&S*; your kindness has made a massive difference.
*Neither Lucy nor I have any affiliation with M&S or are being paid to say nice things about them.