Snoloha.com is back online, and much quicker than anticipated. As you may or may not know, we had to switch servers recently. The hosting company said to expect 24-48 hours of downtime for “DNS to fully propagate.” I guess this is a good example of “under promising and over delivering”, which seems to be a rarity these days in customer service. Usually it’s the “over promise and under deliver” experience. It’s the easier promise to make because the customer hears what they want and it makes them happy at the time. However, as you know if you’ve ever experienced the “over promise and under deliver”, you end up being even more unhappy than you were originally when the promise doesn’t come true.
I have been extremely frustrated with my hosting company for the past couple weeks. After numerous email exchanges, one of the customer service reps told me that they didn’t know how long until my server would be fixed, recommended we switch servers, and said to expect 24-48 hours of downtime.
Why does this make me happy?
He was honest with me – He said he had no idea when it would be fixed. He could have continued to make excuses and try to pacify me until the next time something broke, but he didn’t.
He displayed an interest in my business as if he were a part of it (which he is since the hosting company is an integral component of a website) – He gave me a strong recommendation on how they would fix the problem (switching servers) and said he’d rather me experience downtime now, rather than deal with the current problem during the holiday shopping season so I don’t experience too many lost sales.
He didn’t over promise and under deliver – He said expect 24-48 hours of downtime, and here I am back online less than 24 later.
A perfect example of how a frustrated or angry customer is the perfect opportunity for companies to salvage a relationship and actually create more loyalty and potential referral business.
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