The value of customer service

Wow, how many times can we as consumers say that we've been ripped off by a company or have had the worst of service from small companies to corporations.  Customer service is a no-brainer. You MUST take care of your clients.  Personally speaking, I know I've had instances where I could have done better or more.  That being said, I try my best to make all of my clients happy.

I received an email Thursday morning from the owner of a hosting company in response to a post I put up about the experience we had with them after having been a client of theirs for years.

Here's my post:

I signed up with (hosting company) because of the cost being so low. Ends up you get what you pay for. Their biggest problem is having emails marked as spam that are sent out due to the ridiculous amounts of spam that gets sent from their servers. On multiple occasions I've searched their IP's for blacklist records, and to no surprise, there they were.

Incompetent customer support, billing system out of whack, constant issues. Do yourself a favor and don't sign up.

We used to use them as our hosting provider to offer hosting services to our clients.  The price was on point, it offered quick installation of commonly used scripts and was easy to use.  The downside?  Everything else.  My anger came from treating me like they didn't care.  In my mind, I'm thinking they've charged my credit card dozens of times, yet I can't a straight answer or some compensation for my trouble?

His response (in short):

Hi David,

I'm the owner of (hosting company) and I recently came across your review you posted.

I'm very sorry for the issues you had! The complaints you had were serious issues hostgator was having.

We were able to solve the email issue by setting up a mail gateway that is constantly recycling ips and removing any that are blacklisted. Back when you were with us while we removed spammers instantly we didn't have this gateway so when an ip got blacklisted it would normally take days for the blacklisting list to respond to us and remove the ip. The biggest issue we faced believe it or not wasn't even from spam! Due to our company size many of the networks were blacklisting us based on volume of mail we sent even if 0 spam was being mailed. The mail gateway we setup solved this issue as well.

The billing system we were using modernbill was perhaps the biggest issue our company had. We were hard at work building our own system for years and just recently migrated over to it in the last few months.

I'd love to attempt to make things right with you. Would you be interested in giving us another chance if I gave you a free year of hosting no strings attached? If you aren't interested in this I'd like to give you some type of refund for the poor service we provided you.

I look forward to hearing back from you and fixing the past.

Thank you very much for understanding.

I didn't expect this, especially a year after posting it.  Part of me was upset.  The other part said this was a man trying to make right on his wrong.  I have to say, I'm impressed.  Most people would shrug off what I said and chalk it up to a loss.  He didn't.  This is the first time I could give them credit for trying to make things work.

There's a great lesson in this.  First, treat your customers like gold...even the one's that give you trouble.  Remember they're human too (and put money in your pocket).  We're not here to change who they are, just here to take care of their business needs.

Next, make good on your past mistakes.  You don't need to make a list like "My Name is Earl", but I think something as simple as a thank you card or phone call to make good will speak loudly about who you are trying to become as a business owner or service provider.  I'm not afraid to admit I have a few people I need to get in touch with myself.  There's no shame in it, just honor.

Lastly, offer an olive branch to your customers past and present.  We see this as a way to either cement a relationship (thanks Synergy) or mend a previously broken one.  If this means a coupon, a discount or even free work, do it.  We field phone calls from clients of years ago who need help.  Doesn't hurt us a bit to talk (we enjoy it).  If we can help, we will.  Hope you're willing to do the same.