List of companies that offer good customer service

I've found it very much down to the individual you're dealing with at the time.

Ditto

HSBC has been really, really good to me.

Ditto

laura ashley, rubbish delievery but great customer service makes up for it

I generally don't have too much trouble- except for letting agents from hell and Tesco on a Saturday night with only one till open, and all of the self service machines broken 

I recently had to call a US company for something and it was horrible, horrible, horrible customer service!!! 

But big places that pop out at me that have been outstanding for me with customer service lately are:

East Coast Trains

AXA home insurance when my bike was stolen

My landlord's home insurance on my flooded flat -but can't remember what company it is, but they've been really good

The other day the DVLA actually surprised me with really good customer service as well 

The girls in Starbucks at Glasgow Airport today were absolutely lovely

I think it depends on what you consider to be good customer service. Personally, I'm not that bothered if you don't smile at me and ask me how I am, or if you don't constantly rush over to me to see if I need help. And sometimes long queues can't be helped.

To me, good customer service means that if I ask you to do something for me, do it right the first time or else get someone else to do it. And if I have a problem, fix it right away. I don't care if you're smiling at me when you fix it.

As an example, I recently closed out my bank accounts with Santander because they had constantly made one mistake after another and weren't able to fix them.

However, the people at the branch and on the phone have always been friendly and polite. That's not enough.

For the record, I recently visited my parents in the US and we had horrible service each time we went out to eat. In one restaurant, the waitress constantly asked us if we were okay, to the point where it was impossible to have a flowing conversation. At another restaurant, the waiter was condescending and constantly forgot our requests because he was too busy gossiping with his colleagues (we were seated near the kitchen). I know the US has a reputation for good service and while I'm sure there is stellar service out there, there's also some shocking service.

Whenever I hear about "good service" I cannot help thinking about a certain acquaintance of mine who saw nothing to be embarrassed about in having gone to Sun City for a holiday during the days of apartheid. "Such good value, and the most wonderful service!" he said.

I think it depends on what you consider to be good customer service. Personally, I'm not that bothered if you don't smile at me and ask me how I am, or if you don't constantly rush over to me to see if I need help. And sometimes long queues can't be helped.

To me, good customer service means that if I ask you to do something for me, do it right the first time or else get someone else to do it. And if I have a problem, fix it right away. I don't care if you're smiling at me when you fix it.

As an example, I recently closed out my bank accounts with Santander because they had constantly made one mistake after another and weren't able to fix them.

However, the people at the branch and on the phone have always been friendly and polite. That's not enough.

I'd agree with this.  I also think that good customer service should be about more than just greasing the squeaky wheels.  I remember once I went to Starbucks in California on a weekday morning.  There was a queue out the door of people in work clothes, while a woman who was clearly a lady of leisure (Juicy tracksuit bottoms with Vuitton bag) held everyone up by ordering a million bags of coffee then quibbling about how it was ground, making the barista go back and forth three or four times to grind it again.  The barista was really nice and accommodating, but in my opinion she should have asked the woman to wait until she had dealt with the people who were on their way to work and needed faster service.  The Juicy woman would no doubt have kicked up a fuss at this, but it would have been giving better service to more people instead of focusing on the one who was being unnecessarily difficult and who was likely to cause a scene if left un-catered-to.  It was the same situation at the winery I used to work for, also in California.  We were under a lot of pressure from the managers to bend over backwards in order to keep people happy, and heaven help anyone who had a customer complain about them.  The result of this policy is that a few obnoxious idiots were able to hold the whole place hostage because the $5 that they paid for a tasting ticket made them "customers" and they took full advantage.  Meanwhile, nice people who don't make a habit of complaining had their experience ruined because the obnoxious people were allowed to run amok.  Surely "good customer service" would dictate that the obnoxious minority be told to go away and stop ruining things for the polite majority, but clearly not. 

"The customer is always right" should not be taken literally, IMO.  Staff should be polite, but customers shouldn't be allowed to cause trouble or expect everyone to bend over backwards for them.   

It's a mixed bag. I had terrible service for things like electric and gas in the UK. Oh and phone, etc. Things you kind of HAVE to get unless you go live off-grid in the wilderness with solar panels. But I also had great service in small, independent shops and some good chains.

But I have to say, customer service is sliiiiiiiiding down hill here in the US in places where it used to be better.

I completely agree on both counts.  I got mega attitude at Nordstrom yesterday and was really taken aback.  WTF?! 

I think it depends on what you consider to be good customer service. Personally, I'm not that bothered if you don't smile at me and ask me how I am, or if you don't constantly rush over to me to see if I need help. And sometimes long queues can't be helped.

To me, good customer service means that if I ask you to do something for me, do it right the first time or else get someone else to do it. And if I have a problem, fix it right away. I don't care if you're smiling at me when you fix it.

And that, too.  I'm a pretty easygoing person.  I'm very understanding that sometimes sh!t happens and unforseen things go wrong.  I make mistakes, too!  I'm fairly intolerant, though, of straight up incompetence and "not my job" attitude.  And both happen on both sides of the Atlantic. 

That said, my lifetime best-ever, above-and-beyond service experience has been in the UK with our vet. 

USPS.
Example. Just returned from mailing a package. I got to the counter and the gifts were not in a package because there a few choices to make, box vs envelope, The clerk showed me the options and I offered to step aside so the other customers could be waited on while I put the addresses on the envelope. She said thats OK and she then put the gifts in the envelope sealed it and I was through with the addressing at the same time. Wonderful service! I'm sure at the end of her workday she feels really good that she had helped a lot of people. In MO she has a secret of life.
Cheers

I agree with people that say that it's swings and roundabouts.  Sometimes I get great service here, sometimes crap.  Same with the States.  I think the absolute worst when it comes to customer service was some of the service I got from Verizon.  I once called them when our phone kept going out and was told that it probably had to do with the rain.  Yeah.  Because a snow belt city's infrastructure can't handle drizzle.  And then they made me switch my long distance to them in order to keep from having a cap on my account (this was before Skype and Vonage).  The minute I got Vonage, I dumped Verizon and would never go back, even if we moved back to the States.  I would use a friggen PAYG cheapy mobile before I signed up for Verizon again.

But here, what drives me nuts is when they adopt the practice of checkbacks (usually in a chain), and then get all defensive when you actually offer a complaint.  Maybe this happens in the States, but I've never encountered it.  It's happened several times here, and TBH, I rarely do complain, but every single time I have, it's always something to do with me.  Chips undercooked (raw in the middle actually), well it's because that's how they do them there (I think he actually meant in the UK...little did he know that it was my British husband's chips and he was in the loo)--Giraffe who usually have awesome service, and that's why we go.  Appetizers frozen in the middle, it wasn't frozen, just meant to be eaten fast.  Must have gotten cold---Pizza Hut.  Crust too hard to cut even with sharp, serrated knife?  That is how authentic pizza is made, you American--Pizza Express.

All of those places, particularly Giraffe, we've had great service.  However, they shouldn't ask if everything is OK if they actually want to hear when things aren't.  If they are asking to try to drum up more business in the form of side orders or the dessert menu, they should directly ask for that.  

Another mixed bag: Cunard.  We had great service (room steward and 95% of the people we encountered were awesome).  They just hired a few tools (head waiter, the fitness consultant) and have an awful customer service line.  Sure the people on the customer service line were nice enough, but the wait of at least a half an hour every time we called sort of sets the mood.

But here, what drives me nuts is when they adopt the practice of checkbacks (usually in a chain), and then get all defensive when you actually offer a complaint.  Maybe this happens in the States, but I've never encountered it.  It's happened several times here, and TBH, I rarely do complain, but every single time I have, it's always something to do with me.  Chips undercooked (raw in the middle actually), well it's because that's how they do them there (I think he actually meant in the UK...little did he know that it was my British husband's chips and he was in the loo)--Giraffe who usually have awesome service, and that's why we go.  Appetizers frozen in the middle, it wasn't frozen, just meant to be eaten fast.  Must have gotten cold---Pizza Hut.  Crust too hard to cut even with sharp, serrated knife?  That is how authentic pizza is made, you American--Pizza Express.

Yes, this is something I have only encountered in the UK (although I can't say that it never happens in the US.) You complain about something and instead of apologising or trying to fix it, you are told that you made the mistake, not the worker or the company.

I think this is what the phrase "The customer is always right" is about. It doesn't mean giving the customer whatever they want - serving a loud, complaining customer ahead of everyone else or giving a customer something for half price. It means that when there is a choice, do it the customer's way. If I want my chips cooked more (and I ask politely) then take them back and heat them up. Don't argue with me.

I think even more than that, a restaurant (or other service provider) shouldn't make the customer feel like they are being ignorant or too picky. I know customers can be too picky (I've worked serving customers enough to know what people can be like), but those three examples were all where the quality ruined the food, rendering it inedible.  Chances are I wouldn't have said anything unless they asked, and they did.  

I don't expect wait staff to bow to my every whim or pretend to like me.  And granted, some people are able to build a rapport with a customer (and usually these are the people who manage to bring home the tips, at least in the US) and others don't have the people skills.  You don't need to be a jerk to everyone, nor do you even have to be a jerk to people that complain.

Anyway, I found in serving customers, that the friendly you were to jerks, the more it got to them.  If they were just normal-non-jerky people having a bad day, being nice usually disarmed them, but for the ones that fed off from treating service people badly, they'd rather see you lose your cool than to be really nice.  However, I do think there is a lot to be said for women in the US who have to smile and be nice to customers and having that misinterpreted as sexual advances (maybe the same applies to men as well, I don't know).  When I was working in a supermarket, I was in shape and young.  I had a stream of "regular" customers, usually men, usually alone.  I hated it because I didn't know how to handle the flirting without encouraging them, keeping my self respect, and still providing the level of friendliness my work required.  

I absolutely hated every single service job I had, and I always feel for the people working in those jobs.

I agree with people that say that it's swings and roundabouts.  Sometimes I get great service here, sometimes crap.  Same with the States.  I think the absolute worst when it comes to customer service was some of the service I got from Verizon.  I once called them when our phone kept going out and was told that it probably had to do with the rain.  Yeah.  Because a snow belt city's infrastructure can't handle drizzle.  And then they made me switch my long distance to them in order to keep from having a cap on my account (this was before Skype and Vonage).  The minute I got Vonage, I dumped Verizon and would never go back, even if we moved back to the States.  I would use a friggen PAYG cheapy mobile before I signed up for Verizon again.

Verizon. I'm with you. My experience with them. I signed a two year contract with them and towards the end of the contract I moved from San Francisco to Las Vegas and I asked and got a local phone number. I had asked a head of time whether the contract would remain for the same time period otherwise I would live with the old number. They said 'no problem' and they stated such on a contract. At the end of the 24 months I decided to not renew my contract. Guess what, they wanted to charge me $250? for early termination. I told them I had a signed contract and they said (roll the drums here) we don't honor the contract!!!! That was over 10 years ago and I still didn't pay them. I got dinged on my credit for a long time. Can't fight city hall, they have the lawyers.

IMO corporations run America and they just have elections to keep the masses off track.

Legs,
Feel honored. I thought your last post especially good so I texted it to my son who is a manager at one of the biggest hotels in Las Vegas. He may have time to read it on the job and just as he is handling an irrate customer. On that note and I think you will appreciate this, a few guests try to be professional freebee operators. 'I want my 3 days compted because there was no chocolate on my pillow last night', sort of thing.
These hotels might seem like a soft touch but they can be tough believe me. They will call security if the guest gets too high handed and they will be tossed and arrested if they ever come on the property again.
One interesting case. A Brit who was getting married in LV and wanted to hang her wedding dress up saw the ideal, to her, hook. She hung it up and all the sprinklers went off. She had to pay a few thousand dollars for the damage as I remember. Poor kid.

Threads like this are funny.  Clearly, there are folks who feel there is and have experienced poor customer service here, because this comes up time and again.  The person I know who complains the most about UK vs US customer service is a native born Englishman (not my husband), mid-50s, has lived here all his life but traveled to the US a bit.  He is always asking me how could I possibly leave the US & its grand customer service for the abysmal service over here.  (He is nothing at all like the aforementioned 'Poppa's little princess' - whoever that may be.  Lol!  So much for 'types'.)  And I've had other native Brits (of various ages) make similar comparisons to me.

On the other hand, there's the folks quick to jump to the defense of UK customer service.

And I am sure that for some of the companies named on this thread as good service, there are probably people who have had bad service from those same companies.  And vice versa.

So yeah - I think it's all individual & your mileage may vary & all that jazz.

Having worked in a couple of different customer dealing oriented roles here, I will say the employer-organised customer service training that I've received (or rather not received) here has been vastly different from that which I received in the US.  So I was very glad to have had training & experience in it in the US beforehand.  And it is such that the people I work with now (colleagues and managers) often give me the feedback that I make it seem effortless (it's not) - but I feel that's simply because they have not received the calibre of training & support that I did in the US for so many years.  In fact, my being there has informed some of our training process for quite simple techniques that no one ever really thought to do or that might make a difference - lol!  Now maybe that is all down to that I worked for great places in the US, and I've worked for crap places here - who knows?

Sometimes I work with new employees & it's so painful when you can readily see that a person just has no idea what to say to defuse a complaint situation, or how to deal with it.  And that's a training issue to me!  Of course, everyone concerned is going to end up frustrated (or not caring in the rep's POV) & upset.

I have also had the conversation with my hubs before when I felt a certain customer service was lacking...  And my impression is that the poor customer service person just simply didn't have the skills they needed, or the contacts or resources or whatever was necessary, to deal with the problem well.  And so DH and I were talking about investment in customer service (to keep customers) vs investment in getting new business...and that some industries perhaps clearly have sufficient customer turnover that they may not focus on customer retention as much as trying to court new customers (mobile phone providers come particularly to mind).  Of course, that could also be true for the US.

Sort of along the lines of something that LegsAkimbo posted, it is frustrating too when there's a sort of pass the buck down the line (for a problem/complaint) kind of mentality - be it to blame the customer, another department, etc.  That wasn't acceptable in my US customer service experience, and I refuse to do it here.