Communication is the Key to Great Customer Service

Around certain corners of the blogosphere, my experiences with the Geek Squad have become the stuff of legend. The positive follow-through of Robert Stephens and his team led my wife and I to buy our next laptop from Best Buy and to purchase the extended Geek protection.  I've met Robert Stephens and I know his commitment to deliver an exceptional service experience.

Thus it was that we found ourselves back at the Geek Squad counter at Best Buy with my wife's four-month-old Toshiba laptop in the throes of a full-out crash. The agents dutifully agreed to recover all the data they could and, under our service agreement, to fix and restore the computer. This was one of my wife's busiest weeks at work and she was suddenly, hopelessly shut down. She was frustrated, depressed, and anxious to get her lap top back.

While the Geeks' technical abilities have been elsewhere questioned, I have never had a problem with their technological acumen. They know their stuff. If there has been any issue with their service, it's in the human soft skills. Through the weekend, promises to call us with updates were not honored. When we finally called for updates, agents referred to other computers ("No, my touchpad did not need to be replaced"), couldn't find our paperwork, and had to find the "right agent" to call us.

Great communication is the cornerstone of great service.

• If you need to update the customer, commit to a time frame - even a general one.
  
• Make sure you call the customer back, even if you only call to say, "we're still working on it - but I wanted to honor my promise to call."
  
• Be organized and have your stuff together. Nothing will destroy customer confidence like not being able to correctly identify the correct case/account/issue and speak confidently to the status of the issue (i.e. "I was calling you back about...let's see...where was that sheet?...can you remind me what we were doing for you?")
  
• Speak honestly, clearly and concisely to the issue. If something isn't going right, explain the action plan to make it right and provide an ETA to resolution.

My wife's laptop was back to us on Monday and she is is going through the agonizing process of re-installing her on-line life. I was actually impressed that the agents were able to fix it and turn it around over the weekend. To their credit, the Geek Squad agents at Jordan Creek acknowledged that they had dropped the communication ball along the way, apologized and made it right. My wife drove away from the Best Buy store with her laptop and a  great customer service reminder.