If it had happened this week instead of last week, I would have written it off as an April Fool’s joke:  a major company had a lapse in customer service…and gave its customers a rebate before many of them even knew there had been a problem!

When was the last time you ever heard of such a thing?

Video-Rental giant, Netflix, suffered a huge meltdown in its website which cut off an untold number of subscribers for well over a full day.  In case you were unaware, Netflix’s whole business is based on the internet.  So, DVDs which had been scheduled to be mailed out on a Monday didn’t go out until Tuesday.

No sooner had the problem had been fixed, than the company sent out mass emails apologizing for the disruption of service and offering a 5% rebate on everyone’s monthly subscription fee.

And they did this without it being demanded of them.  In fact, they did it before many of those affected even knew there had been a problem!  (I knew, because I spend way too much time online!)

Now since I’m at the lowest subscription levels, this amounts to very little in money.  But…

Again:  when was the last time you ever heard of such a thing?  And more to the point for Voice Actors (another business entity doing business online), when was the last time  you ever did such a thing?

True, it’s still best to make a great first impression.  And it’s best to always strive to deliver your best.  Still, when you know your service has slipped…even a little bit…what value could you place on having your clientele realize you’d corrected a problem before they knew it existed, and sent a little “thank you” along with your apology?

Like another big company is fond of telling us:  “Priceless.”

— over and out —