Everything In Between

Lately, I have been reading Jakob Nielsen’s excellent book, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. As I was reading it on the subway yesterday, I got to page 308 only to find that the facing page was page number 325. Naturally, I was somewhat frustrated that the copy I got was defective.

The first thing I did when I got home was to go online and search through the online errata to see if I could locate the missing pages. Unfortunately, as far as I could tell, it’s not in there at all. The error isn’t even mentioned anywhere on the publisher’s web site.

I resolved to emailing New Riders publisher’s customer service staff and asking whether they could point me to a copy of the text. When I checked my email today, there was an apology from the New Riders Customer Service department asking for my address so that they could ship me a new copy. That is awesome.

The prompt reply, and the no-nonsense manner in which they offered to resolve my problem has left me with an incredibly positive association with New Riders (assuming, of course, that my new copy arrives without any glaring errors). There is only one other company that I have heard of which resolves customer support complaints so elegantly, and that is Apple Computers.

Having good customer service is far more important than selling a good product. Why? Because it only takes one negative experience to turn customers away from you, no matter how good your product is or how deeply loyal the customer may have previously been to your brand.

Update: About 10 minutes ago today (February 8^th) there was a knock on my front door by the postman. Surprised, I signed for the package and took it inside to open it. Low and behold, a shiny new copy of Designing Web Usability was now resting in my palms! And, yes, I checked the pages and this copy has no errors that I can see whatsoever. I’m definitely a satisfied customer.