I find it rather crazy that in the last week I have run into a handful of customer service situations that left me so frustrated (see the pic - this is me!).  Each incidence was annoying because either the follow-up or follow-through (or both!) were lacking.  I get it - my standards are ridiculously high since customer service is my expertise, but seriously people - it's not that hard to do it a little bit right! 

Follow-Up & Follow-Through

We have a couple of vendors that suck at this.  While we may have a choice of whom we do business with, sometimes our hands are tied, and we are left pulling our hair out.  Remember Jana's story about QuickBooks?  Yes, that "escalated case" from a couple of months ago is still open, unresolved, and no, we aren't getting status updates.  Pathetic.  And how about my real life examples that are below.  I am sure that you have experienced similar situations.  

• We submitted a support ticket for assistance on a particular task, and the outcome of this task will help us to save money. I was immediately told that support would be completed ASAP (what's ASAP to her clearly isn't the same ASAP to me!).  Fast forward a week, I email to check in on status, she says she will give me an update the following day (didn't happen), six days later I check back in, says it should be completed that day, and what do you know - four days later, I have to reach out again.  This "ASAP" task took an entire month to complete. 
  

• A product was delivered damaged.  I contacted Customer Service right away to report the issue and immediately received an auto-reply that stated I would hear back within a day.  Three days passed, and I reached out again.  The agent apologized and said she would get back to me with a plan for replacement.  A week went by, I emailed her again, and to my surprise, she said, "Good news! Your replacement is on its way to you and will arrive on Thursday.  Please donate the other one to someone that can do the repair."  A good outcome, but where was the communication?

Let's stop these annoying customer service issues and implement these key measures for appropriate follow-up and follow-through:

• Respond to all inquiries within 1 business day.
• When you respond, specifically state what actions are being taken and give an estimate for a completion time. (Apologize too, when appropriate.)
• Check in with the customer to give status updates at regular intervals.  And it can be okay if sometimes the update is that there is no change!  At least the customer doesn't wonder what is going on and if they have been forgotten.  
• Announce when the issue/task is resolved/completed. Be informative and explain what was completed and offer suggestions for the future, when applicable.
• Thank the customer.

It will make me, and all other customers, oh so happy if these simple things are the standard.  Appropriate follow-up and follow-through can result in grabbing customers for life.  I know you liked these very basic measures, so you will also like our "K.I.S.S. Method of Customer Service" freebie (it was just Valentine's Day, so kiss is most appropriate!).  Download, print, and share with your team.