Credit where it’s due – do you praise good customer service?

Before I worked for Which? I was rubbish at complaining if I got poor service. I got shy and was nervous to speak out, not wanting to offend someone or get them in trouble for what could just be a mistake. But now I’m here I recognise the importance of giving companies feedback. After all, any company worth its salt would want to know if it was doing something wrong.

But do you give praise as well? Would you go out of your way to tell a company they’d done a good job?

One of my resolutions is to start giving a bit of credit where it’s due. I’m often so busy that when someone’s done something nice, a rushed ‘thanks’ is all they get. So, from now on, I’m going to try and make sure my compliments are as loud as my complaints.

Cracking couriers

The other day I sent an email to a courier company that could almost be described as a love letter. I usually get frustrated with courier companies, especially with their notes telling me my package will languish in a distribution centre 10 miles away unless I take time off work to wait in for it.

But on this occasion the company were friendly, accommodating, and willing to redeliver on a Saturday. ‘Not in on Saturday? No problem,’ they said – ‘we’ll leave it with one of your neighbours.’ What’s more, they were willing to arrange all of this by email so I didn’t have to phone them on an 0845 or 0870 number to sort it all out.

I sent them an email thanking them for their service and letting them know why I was so pleased. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, which almost made up for the grumpy feeling I’d had the week before when I had to complain to a gardening contractor who mowed down my flowerbeds.

Is good service expected?

But surely they’re just doing their jobs, right? Why should we praise companies who are being paid for providing us a service? Well, fair point – I don’t spend all my time sending emails to Tesco because they sold me a lunchtime sandwich, I’ll only do it for those that go above and beyond. And I think it can make a real difference to the people working for the company.

I noticed the other day when we released the results of our ‘top shops survey’ that some customers chipped in to congratulate the winner – Lush. One customer saw the results and tweeted that Lush’s win was ‘a sure thing with such great staff.’ The customer comment makes little difference in the grand scheme of things, but no doubt will have made their staff happy.

In some cases, staff can even get awards if you praise their customer service. I used to get wine delivered from Virgin Wines, who wrote on the case ‘tell us if your driver did a good job today – there might be something in it for them!’ I phoned the attached number to tell them the driver was good, partly out of curiosity to see what happened. The customer service person on the phone didn’t tell me what would happen, but I hope that somewhere a driver got a nice gift, or a small boost in their monthly pay packet.

So, do you praise companies when you think they’ve done a good job? Or do you generally only go through the hassle of contacting someone when you need to make a complaint?

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