American Express cares about customers
Just to be clear, I’m not getting paid for this but I want to send a shout out to AMEX for their great customer service. Forget the automated voice at sounds like a robot with a malfunctioning voice inflection unit. When you finally get a real Mensch on the line, it’s never been a bad experience for me. In fact, it’s almost always a great experience.
I kind of know my way around customer service. In my work at i.TV I’m responsible for all outward communications and contact with our users. This includes general responsibility for tech support. I know what our support people say, how they communicate with our customers and the general level of satisfaction with the level of service. We are not perfect but based on feedback we get from happy customers, I think we’ve got some good things going.
I think any organization that wants to improve should look to American Express as an example. Somehow, for an often thankless job, they’ve managed to hire people who know their stuff and who care enough about customers to give them thoughtful answers that go above and beyond a script. Today I had a question about my statement due date because my account was hit with an unexpected finance charge. Finance charges stink and I try hard to avoid them. Apparently, my statement due date recently changed. The agent told me what it now is but then she explained that because of recent fair credit legislation the due date would no longer fluctuate but stay fixed. She offered up that info even though it kind of painted AMEX in a bad light (because of the unfair practice of shifting due dates) and even agreed this legislation will be good for ‘the folks’.
Bottom line: Customer support organizations aren’t always the best at helping people solve their problems but American Express hasn’t failed me yet.