Customer Service Disaster or Opportunity?

Reuters UK today told a story of Customer Service disaster.



Customers of cable firm NTL got a surprise when they called for Customer Service recently, hearing a message, obviously changed without company knowledge:



"You are through to NTL customer services. We don't give a (expletive) about you. We are never here. We just (expletive) you about, basically, and we are not going to handle any of your complaints. Just (expletive) off and leave us alone."



The article ends by stating the NTL management has issued a press release saying that the message has been changed and that they apologized.



Now, put on your leader hat and think Customer Service. What NTL did was standard stuff. The question is, what might you have done differently to turn the disaster into an opportunity?



I could provide some ideas, but I'd rather end this with the challenge for YOU to think about it. The next time your team is together, pose this situation and brainstorm what you might do. It is a good mental exercise, but beyond that, it might give you great ideas of things you can do now, to further WOW your Customers.