At last I have a great example of customer service to share! It’s a rare thing – but when a company does get their customer service right it is thing to behold and admire!
I recently went shopping at IKEA … and to cut a long story short they had some stock issues and a rather inflexible delivery policy, which would have meant that I had to fork out the £30 delivery fee twice instead of just the once. Anyway, while waiting in the queue I decided to fill out the “comments” form on the off chance that it might find it’s way to someone who would actually read it & action it. (Of course I was sceptical … aren’t we all?)
A few weeks have passed, when suddenly some registered post arrived at my door. I had long since forgotten this incident … and imagine my surprise when I found that the letter was from IKEA.

In a very nice letter they explain why they were having stock issues (rebuilding their warehouse) and that they’re now putting measures in place to ensure the problems don’t happen again (physical stock checks) and they want to appologise for any inconvenience. They also included a £15 gift voucher ” as a gesture of goodwill” and to “restore your faith in IKEA”.
There are a couple of key lessons I can draw from this:
1) IKEA is serious about customer service. It’s not just lip service.
2) They make personal connections with their customers (this was not some standard template letter – it was specifically written with reference to my circumstances.)
3) Every customer is important and IKEA want to keep it that way!
Am I impressed? Absolutely! Will I be shopping there again? Without doubt!
Now … if only other companies would take a leaf out of IKEA’s book …