From Complaint to Idea: Listening to Customers

Recently I’ve come across two very interesting articles. One on Ellon Musk (CEO of Tesla and SpaceX) and another was Jeff Kirwan (the CEO of GAP). Both were about how these big guys took care of customer complains.

Elon Musk

For Elon Musk to take action on something, you might think it was a huge complain that worked its way up to the him. However, would you have thought that he would have received a tweet? A Tesla owner decided to tweet and complained directly to Mr. Musk.

Though most of us would have thought that it would be ignored or answers by some other Customer Service Representative. No, Elon Musk replied to the user directly within the same day. Not only that, the CEO went on to implemented a remedy to the problem within 6 days following the complaint. This would not only effect the one user, but all other Tesla owner – for the greater good of course.

Elon Musk

Jeff Kirwan

For Jeff Kirwan, he received a complaint from a young girl no older than 5 ½ years old. Not someone who spend thousands of dollars on a product his company sells, but a very potential customer. Now, we can’t talk much about the execution of CEO’s plan. However, what we do want you to look at is that the CEO replied to young customer.

The customer’s name is Alice. Alice wrote to GAP (not Jeff Kirwan) complaining that there was a lack of variety in the clothing line it offered to young girls, wanting more instead of the usual pink and princess stuff they have. The CEO replied to Alice telling her that GAP will take her advice and work on more fun stuff.

Alice's Letter

Jeff’s Reply

You can read the full story on both these CEOs and their top-notch responses to these customers here (Jeff) and here (Elon).

What we want to highlight is how proactive these guys are. They saw an unhappy customer and took action. It really shows that Customer Service is not only the job or responsibility of a Customer Service Representative. From the sales assistance, to the marketing department and even the CEO. Everything is done for the sake of the the business and ultimately the Customer.

From Complaint to Idea: Listening to Customers