Customer service is never more vitally important than it is when something goes amiss. Depending on the way your business handles the problem, you could either win your customer back or lose your customer for life.

Nobody has perfected the art of customer service as much as Amazon which has built a solid reputation for fast, reliable order fulfillment. By consistently delivering excellent customer service, they have undoubtedly made their mark and changed the retail industry.

So how do they react when mistakes occur?

Overcoming Errors

We all know the usual compensation of a free month of Prime service which Amazon offers its Prime customers if a package does not arrive by its guaranteed delivery date.

Pretty cool, right?

Well, sometimes they top even that when bigger customer service problems crop up. For example, a delivery that was expected by December 24 but came late prompted Amazon to sincerely apologize through a personal phone call, during which they offered a $20 credit that was good for a future order--all this before the customer had even reported the issue!

A missed Christmas delivery that could have easily turned into a customer care disaster was quickly dealt with in a way that instead bred deeper customer loyalty. That’s the power of a personal touch--something that is sorely lacking in today’s automated business landscape.

Have a Back Up Plan for When Mistakes Occur

Everybody can make a guarantee, but the ones that cultivate a loyal following are those who follow through on their promises when they can and have a back up plan to compensate for when they can’t. Like Amazon as highlighted in the example above.

Make sure you have a backup plan even for instances when it is not your fault that things went wrong--and be ready to kick your plan into action even when you don’t have something to lose.

Add a Personal Touch

There’s much that can be learned from Amazon’s take on customer service, not least of which is that it does a world of good to incorporate a personal touch into your normal day to day operations.

You need to go above and beyond rolling out the red carpet onlt when a customer’s patronage is at stake.

Consider DDP Yoga for example, a fitness program with a loyal customer base and a Shark Tank appearance to its name. Even today the owner, Diamond Dallas Page, calls a number of new customers each day to personally welcome them to the program and help them through any difficulties and questions they might have.

The personal connection forged by those personal calls makes customers much more likely to stay with the program and tell their friends about it.

You might not be able to offer calls in the way that DDP and Amazon do. But you can find other ways to offer a personal touch and delight your customers so that they not only stick around but absolutely swear by you.