Friday, July 10, 2009

Good Service is Alive at Netflix!

Everyone is talking about how customer service is horrible wherever you look these days and it pretty much is - just look at my recent experiences with airlines and credit cards, others have problems with moving companies and don't even bring up the topic of hospitals around me. Well, it turns out there's a shining ray of hope. Last weekend I had a a good customer service experience and from an American company no less. That company is Netflix.

Yes, Netflix, that company that sends you DVDs in the mail. We find their service is great value for money and while we have been members for over 5 years, with the exception of one lost disc and one broken disc we've never had any service issues. In each of those rare cases, the problem was rectified with a brief and painless visit to the Netflix website.

Well, last weekend I ran into a little bit of a problem getting an instant movie stream to work on my laptop (the company let's you watch their online movie collection, free of charge, as part of your regular subscription). I called the company's customer service number to ask for some help, fully expecting the horrible customer service experience we have all come to expect from American companies. No such thing. The experience was positively awesome.

First of all, finding the customer service number was a breeze. The website also told me the expected wait time (under 1 minute). I called the number expecting a crappy voice menu that would take forever to navigate through. Again, no such thing. A human picked up within seconds, with no sign of a voice menu. How unexpected and how wonderful! But wait, there's so much more!

The customer service agent on the other end of the line had an American accent! Wow. Americans working a customer service line? The conversation was pleasant, the customer agent helpful, they answered all my questions and even provided some answers to questions I didn't ask. At one point my Internet router was acting up and I wasn't getting an Internet connection, so I asked the agent if I could call back in a few minutes. She proceeded to explain that they were there 24x7... not 8 to 5 EST, not work days, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. An American company... can you believe it?

After my Internet service got back online I called Netflix' service line again, and again was answered in a matter of seconds by a live American human, who proceeded to make quick work of my problem, while at the same time not reading from ANY script (or at least not seeming to read from any script). He was intelligent, informed and pleasant.

Well it looks like there is still hope for customer service in America. Netflix: I was already a fan, but now I am a bigger one. You have made a loyal customer happy and more loyal. Hey look, you even got this free advertising post from a cynical ol' blogger like me...

Enjoyed this post? Please consider subscribing to Money and Such by free RSS Feed or by email. You can also follow me on Twitter.

1 comment:

Kimberlee Stiens said...

Netflix has a call center in the Portland, OR area, and the job postings are very encouraging; casually written while still professional, they make it clear that they're not just another call center. It's nice to know!