CRM and WOM

Okay - personal story from yesterday. A perfect example of brilliant cutomer relations (CRM) leading to great Word of Mouth (WOM). This is how it should be done.

My shaving oil was melting parts of my Gillette Fusion razor blades. So I wrote to customer service through the Gillette website. They are now P&G of course. I got an email back from them within hours. And it wasn't one of those automated : "We-got-your-email-and-you-are-now-in-the-system" emails. It specifically addressed the particulars of my issue: they are sorry; they are sending me a new one; oils are not recommended - they suggest gel or foam; and here's the capper:

"Because of the unusual nature of this situation, our quality department would like to examine the used portion of the product. I'm also sending postage-paid mailing materials you can use to return the used portion to us for examination."

Now this is truly responsive customer service. I am enchanted and impressed.

By last night I realized I had told this story to three people as an example of how brilliant Gillette/P&G are with their customer service. So the Word of Mouth was working full blast. I guess that makes me an influencer.

In a nutshell there is all we need to know about taking care of customers - even when they have a problem - so they will become our advocates.