31 Examples of Good Customer Service

John Spacey, August 15, 2021

Good customer service is a service experience that meets the needs of customers and leaves them with a positive feeling about a business. The following are the basic elements of good customer service followed by concrete examples.

Adaptability	Apologies
Authenticity	Awareness of Competition
Competitive Spirit	Creativity
Cultural Competence	Customer Advocates
Customer Experience	Customer is Always Right
Deep Change	Exception Handling
Extra Distance	Friendliness
Initial Response Time	Packaging & Presentation
Passion for Service	Plain Speaking
Polish	Politeness
Professionalism	Rapport
Resilience	Respecting the Intelligence of the Customer
Solving Problems	Sympathy
Talent	Tolerance & Inclusion
Transparency	Treating Customers as Individuals
Turnaround Time

Adaptability

A hotel that works hard to handle special customer requests such as a late night request to move rooms due to perceived problems.

Apologies

A call center employee who apologies immediately when the customer is inconvenience or complains of a perceived problem.

Authenticity

A restaurant that intensely cares about food, dining experience and service as opposed to end-goals such as profit.

Awareness of Competition

A large IT consulting company that doesn't become arrogant and complacent about the competition such that they retain a sense of humility and urgent need to deliver customer results.

Competitive Spirit

An airline that thanks customers for their business and acts with knowledge that customers have many other choices.

Creativity

Front desk staff who can't fulfill a customer request for a room change but find another solution to the customer's problem with the room.

Cultural Competence

Airline staff who speak multiple languages and are good at dealing with customers from any nation and background.

Customer Advocates

A customer service representative who reports a common design complain to the business unit and product design team that can fix it.

Customer Experience

A cafe manager who politely asks a disruptive customer to leave as they are ruining everyone's enjoyment of the cafe.

Customer is Always Right

A restaurant that takes the pragmatic stance that something is a problem if the customer perceives it as a problem. For example, if a customer thinks your best table isn't good and wants to sit near the bathroom, don't argue.

Deep Change

Addressing the root cause of low customer satisfaction as opposed to the symptoms. For example, an airline that upgrades to newer, more reliable aircraft to improve service levels.

Exception Handling

The process of making reasonable exceptions to policy to benefit the customer. For example, an airline that only accepts payment by credit card for food that has a policy of giving food for free to children traveling alone and others without a credit card.

Extra Distance

A mechanic who provides customers with detailed answers when they ask for advice on a separate problem with a vehicle.

Friendliness

A mover who maintains a helpful, approachable and friendly demeanor towards customers such that they regularly achieve high customer ratings.

Initial Response Time

A real estate agent that gets back to a customer in minutes after an email inquiry.

Packaging & Presentation

A department store that offers gift wrapping that is professional to the extent that few customers could wrap as well.

Passion for Service

Employees at a call center who enjoy their work due to an unusually positive team culture and leverage to solve customer problems such that dissatisfied customers are uncommon.

Plain Speaking

Technical support that explains a problem without dumbing it down or engaging in needless technobabble.

Polish

A waiter at a restaurant who has refined every detail of service such as proper placement of things on tables such that they help to create a fine dining experience.

Politeness

A waiter who addresses customers with respect and polite distance.

Professionalism

A salesperson who is professional such that they dress well, speak well, act well and are knowledgeable about their industry, product and customer.

Rapport

A banker who easily establishes rapport with customers due to their personal presence and inherent charm.

Resilience

A bouncer at a nightclub who handles difficult people in a reasonable way without loosing their composure or becoming stressed out.

Respecting the Intelligence of the Customer

Taking customers seriously when they request information. For example, an airline that provides passengers with detailed reasons for a flight delay and conveys an estimated time of departure with the acknowledgement that there is still some uncertainty around the estimate.

Solving Problems

An airline that immediately presents all customers with a useful list of options when a flight is cancelled including an immediate refund, rebooking, compensation, hotel bookings and so forth without a big hassle.

Sympathy

Trying to understand the situation of the customer at the emotional level. For example, a customer who is angry after being billed incorrectly as they feel they are being cheated. In this situation, a customer service representative may immediately apologize and clearly state that the money will be immediately refunded if the bill is wrong before quickly working to identify the billing error or confusion.

Talent

Customer service is a talent that involves difficult to acquire skills such as emotional intelligence, communication, personal resilience, self-discipline and personal presence. For example, a talented bartender in a busy establishment who achieves high order throughput while dealing with a large number of communication issues without losing their friendly and professional demeanor.

Tolerance & Inclusion

Service representatives who treat everyone well regardless of their background, identity or language abilities.

Transparency

Transparency is fair and open communication. For example, a hotel that communicates a renovation project at booking time with precise details on how the customer may be impacted by the work.

Treating Customers as Individuals

Treating customers as people as opposed to a faceless crowd, stereotype or wallet. For example, a theme park that avoids the sense that crowds are being herded by staff.

Turnaround Time

Fulfilling obligations to customers quickly. For example, a restaurant that has food on the table quickly during the lunch rush as many customers have a short and strict lunch break.