An interesting thing happened today when I called Southwest Airlines to ask about canceling a flight. To my surprise the pleasant voice on the other end of the phone said I could cancel my flight as long as I did so at least an hour before take off. I was so shocked I asked her to repeat what she said. I expected at least a 24 hour time limit for cancellations.

Southwest effectively demonstrates something important about customer service: offer extra flexibility. Customers will become increasingly more comfortable with paying for your service if you allow them to change their mind. With Southwest I will not get my money back if I cancel the flight, but I will get an equivalent credit to use within a year of the original date of my flight. If you happen to be in an industry where giving refunds is unwise provide credit or some other form of flexibility. Perhaps you could try one of the following.

In a retail setting, you could increase customer satisfaction by offering a flexible exchange policy. Within a service driven company you could offer a variety of choices/packages for your customers.

In the case of A Plus Benefits, we offer three different levels of service with a wide array of choices within each of those levels. Each client is able to hand pick which services they want ranging from a 125c cafeteria plan to workers’ compensation policy and claims management. This flexibility gives clients the piece of mind of having a service package created just for their business needs.

Whatever your business, think of creative ways to help customers feel comfortable with making a purchase. Flexibility will not only create more satisfied customers but, like I’ve just done with Southwest, will generate word of mouth about the quality of your product or service.

Samantha Bushard is an HR employee at the Idaho office of A Plus Benefits, Inc.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 8:17 am and is filed under Customer Service, Sales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.