A customer received an email to let him know that servicing was available for a product he had purchased months before. Both the proactive nature of the message, alerting him that he was eligible for a free service and also the ease of making an appointment through just a link on the email, made a strong impression. He believed the company when they said that customer service was important to them.

When he clicked the button and scheduled an appointment, he was further impressed by the confirmation email he received shortly after. This second email mentioned that he could message his assigned service advisor for any questions or help. Because the customer was so pleased up to this point, he decided to send a message to the service advisor thanking him in advance and letting him know that he was looking forward to the appointment.

However, the email was returned with a message saying that the email address did not exist.

Now, it could very well be that the business had automated everything, had an employee leave and hadn’t gotten around to updating the system. But the optics were bad. When an organization claims to put the customer first, the customer needs to be shown that they are being prioritized. This particular customer didn’t care who the service advisor was going to be, but having this experience put doubt into his mind regarding the quality of service because the quality of the experience had been diminished.

If you take the time to put systems in place to impress your customers, make sure that they stay impressed the entire time. Don’t give them a reason to doubt your sincerity.