SurveyGizmo had a service outage this weekend. It inconvenienced their customers. As a result they built customer loyalty.
On the surface that doesn’t make sense — but the manner in which they dealt with the situation demonstrated the character of their company and their commitment to service. You can see their communication here.
My Perspective: SurveyGizmo did number of things right. Here are a few that jumped out in no particular order. Let me know if you see more.
- They communicated quickly and honestly. I didn’t even know there was a problem, but yet they communicated the issue to everyone and didn’t try to hide the problem.
- They were transparent and thorough in their explanation. I have a complete understanding in practical terms what happened and why.
- They shared a solution to avoid the issue in the future. I have confidence that this issue won’t happen again.
- They accepted full responsibility for the issue and didn’t try to shift the blame elsewhere.
- The message was from the CEO and they offered a number where you could call for more answers.
- They identified any lingering issues and what they were doing to resolve them.
- They offered workable, alternative solutions to customers to address the problem until everything was resolved.
- They made me feel like I was an insider.
Overall, they convinced me by their actions that they are committed to supporting my efforts no matter what happens. They will be there for me when I need their service.
So rather than being upset about this issue — I now have a stronger, more trusting relationship with SurveyGizmo than I had before.
Do your service recovery initiatives do as well? If not, have a look at how you handle issues and discover how you can turn adversity into opportunity.
