I’ve ordered signs from Madison Avenue for work. They offer eco-friendly event signs that are reusable and interchangeable. The product is great. With 130 events held by the PTC each year, this was also a cost savings for us…you do the math. I was first introduced to Madison Avenue at the 2007 Annual ASAE conference in Chicago.
The one thing that impressed me with MA was their customer service (one of my favorite ways to market). After uploading the designs to their site, they checked over them for issues and spotted potential brand-damaging errors, which occurred during upload. They had our best intentions always in mind and called with concerns before production.
What I found most encouraging during this process is that they lost electricity during a storm. Normally, this could be a potential client crisis. What they did was turned this crisis into gold. I received a call from our rep who was reaching out to all of his active clients, making them/me aware of the power outage. He said that he wasn’t sure if I tried to call during the outage and wanted to make sure that I didn’t have any concerns that were not addressed by MA due to the outage. (I told him that I hadn’t.) He then assured me that my products would still be delivered on time and thanked me for my business.
Turning an outage into an outreach! Think of how much my trust of MA grew through that one 30 second phone call. This was a great way to turn a damaging marketing and customer service issue into an outreach opportunity that developed affinity and customer advocates. Too often, companies are so concerned with putting out the fires of the crisis, that they neglect the opportunity to change perception. The next time your business encounters a crisis that unexpectedly aims at customer damage, think of ways, like this, that you can turn it into an opportunity to engage your customer base and grow customer support of your business.
Filed under: Customer Service, Marketing Tagged: | crisis, customer affinity, Customer Service, Madison Avenue, power outage
