Customer Service Is The New Marketing

I bought these Aerosoles boots and absolutely adored them. They were comfortable and seemed to go with everything. And then the heel started to peel up. And then the zipper started to separate from the suede. And the thing that was strange was that I’ve had Aerosoles shoes before and I’ve never had issues with them. They last forever and ever.

So I decided to contact the customer service department. They didn’t have a Twitter, but email seemed easy enough. And even though these shoes were purchased months and months ago, I decided to take a chance. Within the day, someone replied to me to confirm that I bought them through Aerosoles and not through a third party vendor. At that point, they let me know that they would mail me a shipping return label, which would charge the shipping costs back to them. I went to the post office one afternoon and mailed my boots off.

Right before Thanksgiving, I received a brand new pair of the Aerosoles boots. Not only did I tell all my friends the story, I also tweeted about it and am sharing it here as well. It felt like an uncommon experience. Why? Because typically customer service is just about the most painful experience possible. You get directed to support forums or to a number that has 18 steps to get through the automatic voice activated system.

Aerosoles didn’t hassle me about the issues I had with the shoes; they didn’t make me send pictures of the damage; they didn’t question how long I had them. Instead, they recognized that I was a customer with a problem and they decided to help me fix it. The bottom line is that the brand, the company, can ALWAYS choose to help the customer. It’s just about making a decision. Aerosoles made it clear that they value me as a customer and in turn, I’ve become a brand advocate.