United Breaks Guitars; what can we learn about customer service?

So united breaks guitars, what lessons are there for us all about customer service in the plight of Dave Carroll, and Taylor Guitars superb response.

For those of you haven’t seen it, this is the heartfelt song from a group whose Taylor guitar was broken on a trip across the States. Bad enough they saw their guitars being thrown about, the difficulties they had with United’s customer services department brought about the song. Here’s the song for you.

What would your customers say about you?

What do your customers say about you when you aren’t in the room. That’s a true test of your brand. Does your customers opinion mean that they are loyal to you, that they'll keep buying from you, which means that you'll increase profits. Our research shows that customers stop dealing with you when they have a problem you don't solve.

Interestingly, Dave Carroll the song writer of "united breaks guitars" and owner of the broken guitar defends one of the customer service personnel who work at United. See his statement here.

Now this is where it gets clever, here’s Taylor guitars response to the broken guitar. Superb, no “complete indifference” here, just a simple step into the customers world, and some advice on travelling with guitars.

How equipped do you feel when things go wrong? Do your call handling skills lead to a customers perception of bad customer service , or are you skilful enough that they understand things go wrong, you've sorted it and they still use you. As a manager do you wish that your teams were more skillful when they are explaining your policies and procedures to the customer.

Use our resource centre to help you find more information which can help you with your customer service skills - no more "All I can do is apologise" need apply.

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