I use Scout Labs (@scoutlabs) as my preferred analytic tool for monitoring social media accounts. I’m not going to go into all the functions because this isn’t a product review but trust me, it’s pretty killer. What I want to talk about is a simple email thread that I had yesterday. I canceled my scout labs account because at the moment I have nothing going that demands everything it offers, and with a price tag of $100 a month I decided to take a break from it. After I canceled within a few minutes I received an email from a scout labs “listener/brainstormer.”
Hi Evan -
I’m Erin at Scout Labs – nice to “virtually” meet you! 
I’m sorry Scout Labs didn’t work out for you! Can you give me an idea of why? Was there a service you needed that you didn’t get or did you decide to go with a competitor? Thanks for letting us know – we find the feedback VERY useful!
THANKS!
That was pretty standard, so I responded by saying that I love the product, cannot justify spending money on it now but will recommend it to clients, so on and so forth. I get this back:
1) any time you’d like me to run a search for you, just let me know. I’d be happy to give you a couple of screenshots so you’ve got something for your proposals.
2) of course a client can always go to www.scoutlabs.com/plans to set up their own account. However, if you want to curate the conversation, you can send over to me a purchase order with the billing info and we’ll be happy to set up an account (we can still deal with the free trial). You might like that option because once you ask us to create an account, we can invite you to the workspace to set up for your client. You can then invite them to the workspace instead of the “fingers crossed, I hope they do it” method.
Anyhow, I’m glad that it’s not over between us. That was almost VERY sad.
Best,
Erin
That right there was above and beyond for me. Even though I was a leaving customer they were doing their best to bring me back for future transactions. They not only recommended approaches to clients, but offered to help me build proposals and broker deals, keeping me in the loop.
I’m a fan.
Now for the kill shot… I of course do what I normally do when something catches my eye like this… post it on twitter…
Not even two hours after I posted this I get this response:
talk about making someone’s day! thanks for the tweet shout out!! Erin
That was amazing to me and here is why: they took a personal interest in me. This means that someone in the customer service team at scout labs was checking their mentions, saw that I mentioned Erin in customer service, took the time to let her know about it, and she took the time to make the connection and thank me for the public mention. It took seconds out of her day but the extra small effort made all the difference on my end.
That’s what customer service in web 2.0 should look like, and I’m now an evangelistic client of their service.
We could all learn from the simple little email threads like this.
you did the same thing for me when you were working at charity: water. That is you made the connection (at least it appeared that way to me) “and now I’m an evangelistic [supporter] of their service.”
Haha! Glad I could help!
Thank you for calling out someone who’s doing it right.
I’ve worked in CS for a very long time. Everything Erin did was great. But truly, nothing less is acceptable. The best way we, as customers, can show companies what we want is by illuminating what is acceptable, rather than moaning about what’s unacceptable.
Thanks for the illumination. I hope this story spreads.
Agreed completely. People should be able to highlight successes and not just focus on negatives. If you get outstanding service at a restaurant, don’t just tip great, ask the manager over and tell them about the great experience. If the food is exceptional ask for the chef. These things go a long way towards improved service and separating the wheat from the chaff.
If only most customers are like you! I work (and sorta grew up) in customer service. I know what goes on with each and every conversation, correspondence, every word that a CS rep/agent says or even does and Amy’s right – nothing less is acceptable.
BUT most customers see customer service as robots/machines… and although the customer is always right — sometimes they also can’t get everything if the product or service just isn’t capable of it.
We won’t force you to stay or hold a grudge if you leave — things like what Erin did are for the company too — because they are hoping that someone like you would do exactly that!
haha sorry, i’m getting preach-y, I live for customer service and I’d be one hell of a proud supervisor/boss of Erin :p