Intro
Recent statistics show that the key to getting consumers to switch to, spend more with, and remain loyal to a business is - delivering great customer service.
- 85% of consumers go out of their way to switch to a company that has better customer service
- 3 out of 4 consumers will spend more with businesses that provide a good customer experience
- Customer-obsessed organizations reported 51% better customer retention than those at non-customer-obsessed organizations
In an age of social media and online reviews, negative criticism of bad customer service tends to feature more prominently than praise. Never truer is the saying:
A happy customer tells a friend; an unhappy customer tells the world.
Amid the noise, you don’t always hear about those companies who are delivering excellent customer service. But they are out there, and we’ll be taking a look at some inspiring customer service examples to give you ideas for improving your own customer experience.
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What does great customer service look like?
The definition of ‘great’ customer service is flexible; it depends on the level of expectation that customers have for your brand and is affected by variables such as your industry, product cost, and brand reputation.
For example, if you’re flying Economy, you wouldn’t expect a 5* service with champagne and canapes – coffee and snacks would do. But if you were to fly higher cost Business class, you’d expect to be offered more luxurious refreshments. It’s what consumers expect from your customer service experience that is the key factor in whether they perceive your brand to be great or lacking, and whether you can fulfil expectations.
Investing in great service is worth your while. Don’t lose customers and brand loyalty by failing to meet or even exceed expectations. Excellent service will keep customers coming back, and grow your business’s revenue.
Your customer service team is your front line, shaping customer experience on a day-to-day basis. They are the people who provide memorably good customer service, and properly empowered, are able to turn a bad customer service experience into a positive one.
The anatomy of great customer service
‘Service with a smile’, while lovely, needs to be just the tip of your customer experience. Supporting your friendly frontline worker must be:
The ability to respond quickly
Customers appreciate fast response times when they want to ask a question or highlight a problem.
Action on customer feedback
Feedback is meaningless if it doesn’t lead to action. When a customer support agent acts on feedback, it shows the customer that their opinion (and they) matter.
Empathy
Employees who understand a customer’s point of view by imagining themselves in their shoes make that customer feel heard and valued, and may even turn an angry customer into a calmer, happier one.
Freedom to go the extra mile
When employees are empowered to deliver great customer service beyond expectations, or add a personal touch to the service experience, they leave a positive impression and can increase the number of loyal customers.
Customer self-service options
Not all customers want to get in touch with customer service, preferring to find their own solutions. A comprehensive, up to date FAQ page or knowledge article base on your website helps those customers.
Omnichannel support
Some customers like to email, some prefer to speak to an agent, and others like to use a live chat option. These different communication channels support busy customers who want flexibility in how they connect with your business. Your customer service teams need to be prepared to offer support through all these channels.
Discounts and coupons
Everyone loves a freebie or money off. Depending on your industry, you can build loyalty and enhance customer satisfaction by offering discounts and coupons.
Why is delivering exceptional customer service important?
Great customer service is essential for your business for many reasons, including:
Satisfied customers spend more
Existing customers who are happy with the service you deliver spend 67% more than new customers. When you invest in delivering great customer service, you not only create happy customers but also generate more for your bottom line.
Profits and return on investment (ROI) increase
According to Forbes, businesses that prioritize customer experience have reported a 4-8% higher revenue increase over their competitors. Your support team should be empowered to provide excellent customer service, not just for the customer’s benefit, but for your brand’s financial benefit as well.
Customers are more forgiving if things go wrong
If you provide good customer service, you can convince customers to return, even if something didn’t go as they expected. 88% of satisfied customers are likely to make a repeat purchase, and 75% will overlook a company’s mistakes if the service is ‘top-notch’.
Customer loyalty hinges on excellent customer service
According to research by Emplifi, 86% of respondents will leave a brand they were once loyal to after only two to three bad customer service experiences, and 49% of respondents have left a brand they were previously loyal to in the last 12 months due to poor customer service. If your customer service doesn’t meet an unhappy customer’s expectations, you risk alienating them and sending them to a competitor.
A great customer experience means more recommendations
Our XM Institute found that consumers who rate a brand’s service as “good” are 38% more likely to recommend that company to others. Consumers who enjoy a good customer service experience are more likely to recommend your brand to others.
6 real life examples of companies that deliver excellent customer service
1. Jet Blue
JetBlue Airways Corporation is a major airline in the United States headquartered in New York.
Jet Blue is an airline that really cares about little details that makes its passengers’ travel more enjoyable. From handing out water, juice and coffee at the departure gate of an early flight because airport shops and amenities were closed, to repairing a terminal speaker the same day when travellers couldn’t hear the gate agent, Jet Blue measures, manages and reacts to their entire customer experience.
Jet Blue even anticipates customer sentiment and puts interventions in place without being asked, as this 5* review from ConsumerAffairs demonstrates:
Why is this good customer service?
This is definitely one of those great customer examples other companies can learn from. The main takeaway? Your customers appreciate you anticipating their needs before they even need to ask. Because of the flight delay, Jet Blue couldn’t deliver its usual standard of service, but by offering a ‘voucher for food, travel and a $100 credit without even asking’ the airline’s great customer service in adversity will keep this passenger loyal. Make your company memorable, with outstanding customer care. It's the simple things that count and produce loyal and happy customers.
With the ability to combine operational data (flight delay) with experience data (experience and satisfaction), JetBlue could pinpoint a problem and make immediate impactful changes.
2. Hilton
Hilton is a global hospitality brand, with over 100 years of trendsetting and innovation. From being the first hotel brand to air conditioning in hotel rooms to introducing digital room keys on guests’ mobile phones, Hilton stays ahead in the digital world. Hilton embraced an industry-leading continuous listening program that collects, analyzes and responds to guest feedback in real time, giving them actionable insights all along the customer journey: before a guest books a trip, through their arrival and stay, and until they are ready to return.
Combining a customer experience platform and a state-of-the-art SMS messaging service, Hilton directly engages with customers by text before, during, and after their stay, giving them a personalized experience. Guests ask questions or express concerns using SMS text messaging in natural, two-way conversations, and Hilton staff can serve multiple guests at once, prioritize the most urgent issues and take appropriate action, such as relocating a guest due to a noise complaint or arranging an in-room amenity.
Why is this good customer service?
Hilton realised early on that the traditional post-stay survey, with data that could only be acted on after the guest checked out, rather than be used to solve current issues, was no longer useful. To give customers the best possible experience it’s crucial to find ways to listen to them before, during and after their interactions with your organization, so you can step in at any point and make their experience better.
Hilton’s continuous listening program gives them actionable insights even before a guest books a trip, through their arrival and stay, and until they are ready to return.
3. Qualtrics! Providing an exceptional event experience
We organise many conferences around the world, such as our renowned X4 Summit in places such as Seattle, Salt Lake City, London and Sydney. To make the event a truly exceptional experience and fulfil our attendees’ needs and wishes, we send in our ‘Qualtrics Dream Team’. From food and drinks, to swag, (and we’ve even been known to supply vacations and massages) our team tries to fulfil as many attendee service requests as possible. The team also collects customer feedback and acts on it for a better event experience, such as changing the room temperature and providing phone chargers.
Why is this good customer service?
Today’s customers don’t just want products or services, they want unique experiences and quality service that they can’t get anywhere else. Customers want to be delighted at every touchpoint, and anytime you can go the extra mile to make it even more special, they’ll remember, and be loyal.
4. Shake Shack
Shake Shack serves elevated versions of American classics such as made-to-order Angus beef burgers, crispy chicken, milkshakes, house-made lemonades, and more. Food is high quality and great value, hospitality is warm, and Shake Shack is committed to crafting uplifting experiences.
Shake Shack uses Limited Time Offers (LTOs) to create memorable experiences for their existing customers and make a compelling reason for new customers give them a try, such as the Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Shake first launched in the Middle East in February 2025, and rolled out in the US across New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami in April.
According to one Reddit user in Los Angeles, “they only make 25 a day, but it’s one of the best shakes I’ve ever had,” praising the balance of flavors and the crackable shell. They added that the combination of pistachio custard and crunchy kataifi “wasn’t too sweet,” calling out the “wild” texture that helped it stand out.
Rich, informative feedback indeed. But getting LTOs wrong can be costly, which almost happened with their new lemonade offering. Formerly named ‘Bergamot Lemonade’ to describe its citrussy tartness, it scored the lowest appeal rating, until customer feedback inspired Shake Shack to change the name to Harvest Berry. Harvest Berry Lemonade went on to be their best selling flavor.
Using one centralized platform for customer, product and market insights Shake Shack joined the dots between executives, culinary researchers, and the marketing team. This allowed for more informed decision making, including the names of menu items, prices, and the ingredients they use. And by embracing AI, Shake Shack is able to deliver their best offers to the right customers, at the right time.
Why is this good customer service?
This is a simple one: listen to what your customers are saying about every aspect of your product – name, ingredients, origin, price. Embrace the latest technology to join up experience data with operational data to generate a holistic, real-time picture of what is affecting your customer experience, and what you can do about it.
5. KFC
With 32,000 restaurants in more than 150 countries, KFC has the widest global footprint of any quick service restaurant (QSR) brand.
With this truly global footprint, KFC needed a single experience management program that could scale internationally and bring together thousands of franchisees across multiple markets. Also, it needed to collate all the insights from the multiple channels that customers use to interact with QSRs today.
QSR restaurant managers are drowning in data. Not so long ago, they needed to focus on just two order channels – the front counter and the drive-thru. Now, there are so many more, including kiosks, online reviews, in-app and food delivery services such as Uber Eats and Doordash – which can even vary across markets.
KFC needed one omnichannel view bringing all this disparate customer feedback together. Powered by AI, KFC implemented a global omnichannel experience management program bringing in structured and unstructured feedback from post-transaction surveys across their stores and online, online reviews and delivery platforms specific to each market. The program has increased customer feedback by 300%, giving team members more valuable insights to improve the customer experience.
Why is this good customer service?
Don’t be afraid of AI – embrace predictive analytics to improve your customer experience by reacting to trends and getting ahead of them. By connecting feedback across every touchpoint, giving teams insights they can use right away, and using AI to stay ahead of customer needs, you can deliver experiences that keep customers coming back.
6. Trader Joe’s
In complete contrast to Hilton, Jet Blue, Qualtrics, Shake Shack and KFC, retailer Trader Joe’s doesn’t even bother to collect customer data. There’s no TJ app, no online shopping option, and no loyalty program. The word ‘omnichannel’ features nowhere in their shopping experience.
So how on earth does Trader Joe’s keep such a loyal returning customer base? The answer is emotion – customers feel welcomed by engaged, friendly staff, excited by the ever-changing, seasonal products, amused by quirky packaging, design, and handwritten signs, and trust that the prices are always fair.
Why is this good customer service?
Trader Joe’s Hawaiian-shirt-clad customer service reps, every one of whom is ‘The Acting Chief of Experience’ are excited by the brand and what it stands for, communicating this to customers. Trader Joe’s warm, welcoming shopping experience gives customers a reason to return, again and again. Sometimes the human customer can get lost in the vortex of omnichannel data – it’s important to remember that at the end of the day you’re serving people.
How to provide great customer service
The best way to deliver exceptional customer service experience is to gather feedback, set metrics and take action on your overall customer experience:
- Remember your customers are real people
- Collect and unify the data from multiple sources, including surveys, calls, chats, social media, and reviews, to give you a 360 view of the customer experience
- Make use of advanced AI and Natural Language Processing to analyze all these different data types, offering real-time insights that let you make data-driven decisions and proactively address customer needs
When you use Qualtrics XM for Customer Experience™, you can bring omnichannel feedback together into one place, make sense of customer trends, and make proactive changes that drive real change.
You’ll be able to:
- track key metrics with a customer service benchmark report to help you to understand how your service is improving over time
- track interactions and feedback across the customer journey and customer service experience,
- set action into motion to gain customer trust and loyalty.
You’ll provide customer service that’s seamlessly omnichannel, deeply empathetic, and driven by human insight.