A new survey exploring attitudes and preferences toward customer service conducted in the U.S. and around the world found that 61% of those surveyed will spend an average of 9% more when they believe a company provides excellent service.
On the flip side, only 37% of those surveyed believe that companies have increased their focus on providing quality service. Another 27% feel businesses have not changed their attitude toward customer service in the current economic climate, and 28 % say that companies are now paying less attention to good service.

There is a real opportunity today to differentiate your business using customer service.  Here’s an example: A colleague of mine and I took the train to Philadelphia for a meeting on Monday. My experiences with Amtrak over the years have been far from satisfactory. From the crowded cars to rude passengers and surly staff to the peculiar smells, it has seemed much easier to drive or fly.

After 14 hours in the car last weekend picking my daughter up from camp in the Poconos, I reluctantly relented to travel by train.  As a frequent air traveler, I have come to expect not just bad customer service but churlish attitudes. My expectations of Amtrak were lower than low. Surprise!

I arrived at the train station with 10 minutes to spare but saw the train already there. Scared that this might mean an early departure, I sprinted for the train sorrowfully leaving two Starbuck’s Vente latte’s behind in the car. As I ran breathless into the station, an Amtrak employee greeted me, told me I had time to spare and assured me I had time to return to the car for the lattes. Next I found out accidentally that they have “Quiet Cars” now.  Finding this out at the first stop (and after an animated dissertation of my drive to the Poconos) caused us to move but didn’t detract from the overall concept of providing passengers who want to sleep or work in a peace a quiet place to do so. The announcements were clear and informative, and we arrived in Philadelphia on time!  I can’t say the same for many of my more recent air trips. My travel partner was so enthralled with the trip that she declared herself an official “train person.” Wanting to manage her expectations, I tempered her excitement with the sagely advice that she was jinxing us.

One meeting down and a taxi thrill ride back to the station, the travel Gods attempted to get even. Our train was running late, and we would miss our connecting train in Washington. I’m a wiz at this type of thing in an airport, but I wasn’t sure how it works on trains, so we headed toward Amtrak’s clearly marked Customer Service department. We explained our situation, and here’s where things get unbelievable. We couldn’t catch the next train out, but if we hurried they could get us on another train, and we would still be able to get home that night. Mr. Kevin McKinney walked us over to ticketing, explained the situation, waited while we exchanged our tickets and then walked us down to the platform to make sure we made it on to the train.  Safely handed over to the next Amtrak employee, Kevin headed back and our next angel reconfigured the single passengers so that we could sit together. Just then we see Kevin running down the platform yelling for us with my credit card in his hand. In our haste I had left it at ticketing and he tracked us down! How cool is that?

We were so tickled that we decided to treat ourselves to a cocktail in the café where yet another wonderful Amtrak employee chatted us up while giving us explicit instructions on how to get back to our seats without spilling anything. 

Throughout the trip, each Amtrak associate engaged in polite conversation and more importantly went about their job as if they enjoyed what they were doing. Now there’s a concept for the airlines to consider.

So the moral of the story is this: We’re going to take the train again. We’re going to tell anyone who will listen to take the train. In the midst of the recession and probably down in headcount like most American institutions during the recession, Amtrak delivered unexpected and remarkable customer service and won a couple of converts. Do you think folks will write about their last experience with your company? If you don’t think so, put some effort into figuring out what you have to do to differentiate using customer service.