Do the Right Thing: A lesson by Netflix (opens in new tab)

We had a discussion at a previous software company I worked at regarding credits for outages.

We were debating whether to give out credits automatically or to send an email with a link to get your credits (like Netflix did). We went with giving credits automatically.

I'd be curious to hear opinions on both approaches and why other businesses went one way or the other regarding credits.

More like "Do the Cheap Thing". The email says he has a 1-DVD plan, which is $10 a month. So he gets a whopping 30 cent credit. Imagine if you were a customer who actually had noticed the issue. Would you consider 30 cents to be reasonable credit? All this is, is cheap advertising. A marketing gimmick.

The way to judge a companies customer service is to look at how they handle a problem you have. One of the reasons I have a negative view of Netflix is because I had a problem with their service, and they handled it poorly. I'm still unhappy about it. So if you're thinking about how wonderful Netflix's customer service, ask yourself if you ever ran into a problem significant enough for you to contact Netflix, and how they dealt with it. I think a lot of the praise for Netflix's customer service is either based on cheap marketing like this, or (and I have to give them credit), the easy process/leeway they give to common problems (wrong/damaged DVD).

Netflix goes farther than that.

People used to accuse them of sometimes shipping from a non-local center in order to let the mail delay slow down the rental cycle, cutting costs by throttling the service.

Now, if a movie is not available at the nearest center, they'll still ship from the remote center, but they'll temporarily give you an extra DVD, shipped from your local center. For a minimal cost, they've completely shut down this criticism...

All I can say is... Wow.

I bet even deliberate false positives like this would make customers feel that a company cares about them.

I have always been pleased with Netflix as a customer. Adding instant watch at no additional charge was something I really admired as well when they first rolled it out.

I always appreciate when companies do this. They build social capital ahead of major outages. This is something I try to keep in mind when helping other people or working on my projects - How can I take care of people so they don't need to worry about whether I am taking care of them or not.

All I ask from a company is replace or refund for a product that is bad. Make the process quick and easy.

I recently had my Kindle's USB cable start cracking and literally crumbling apart. The plastic casing for the cable was very cheap, you bend it and it just cracks.

Called up Amazon and they immediately had me log in, added replacement to my cart, with free 1 day shipping. It took about 5 minutes. Guy was very polite.

Stuff like that, is what gets customers talking positively about your company.

I got this email a few days after experiencing trouble with Netflix (on Safari on a Mac Mini). The movie false-started a few times and didn't work, and I moved on to some other entertainment. That was the first time I'd ever had trouble with Netflix, and I was equally pleased by their customer service.