Quit Making Excuses and Give Your Customers What They Need

by Rachel

I learned a hard lesson this week – and one that I often preach to others – so shame on me! Don’t make excuses!

One of my blog subscribers sent me an email on Monday about the subject line in my blog posts. When I email the blog, the subject reads “Strella Social Media” rather than the headline of my story. She correctly pointed out that, “using the same old tired subject line every day is not helping your case.”

My knee-jerk reaction was to get mad at the reader for pointing it out, get mad at members of my team for not being able to fix it, and just be mad in general. I told her that it was a default setting in my blog and that I would let my web team know about it, but that we had tried before and were unable to figure it out.

She responded and said, “I really do appreciate you getting back to me, but at the same time, you're walking that very fine line of making excuses (not really caring?).”

I was hurt, and again, I was mad at everyone else. But, for a subscriber to think that I didn’t care – that was enough to get me on the horn with several people on my team until the problem was fixed. As I’ve said before, it’s important to use feedback as an opportunity to demonstrate passion for your business and improve customer service.

Granted, this feedback wasn’t bad – or even negative. I do realize that folks get harsh negative reviews that are very public. And it’s easy to take feedback personally – and to make excuses. What we need to realize is that feedback is good. It means that your product or service is important enough for someone to take the time to help you improve it.

The next time I receive feedback, I’ll try my best to get past being mad, examine the feedback practically and determine if the reader or client has a good point.

How are you demonstrating exceptional customer service? Do you know a business that’s fab at this? Share the story here!