It surprises and delights me every time a company does customer communications well, even if for the most mundane reasons. Got this message this morning from Campaign Monitor:
As a user of Monitor for iPhone you may have noticed a frustrating bug surface in the last couple of weeks that resulted in the app freezing. We wanted to reach out, apologize for letting this one slip into a release, and let you know it’s now been fixed once and for all.
Version 1.2.2 was released today so if you update to that one you won’t have any more problems.
This bug had been bugging me. I think they could have sent something earlier ideally, to say they were working on it, because it was seriously annoying and making me think they were being a bit lacklustre, but getting this email today eliminates all doubt and negative feeling about the brand.
Had a similar experience with London Pride recently. Tweeted the brand that I kind of liked, without expectation that they’d even get back and they were on it. Even just that first reply made me like them more.
Had a similar experience with Giraffe three years ago. In that case I had no brand feelings for them at all, but getting a quick and helpful response to an inquiry sparked some respect.
In contrast, a brand that I won’t name, took customer comms too far with what seemed like an automated tweet stream for an entire order fulfilment process, with terrible jokes and all. In that case I think they’ve actually lost me as a customer.
That’s not to say it’s a fine line for getting it right. Just that it’s best not to tweet jokes containing the word ‘dead’ when telling customers that you’re addressing an envelope to them.
Documenteering 