Feedback

Customers First

I am one of those extremely happy Netflix subscribers (The Art of Service). I recommend them to everyone and wouldn't think of moving to Blockbuster, though it solicits me constantly. But who cares? I love Netflix's service, the one-day delivery, and especially the "save for the future" options. I mean, how cool is that? A new movie comes out. I see a commercial for it. I go to Netflix and reserve it for the future DVD release. That beats trying to rack my brain for movies that came out last December that I wanted to look for in DVD now!

Madon Dailey
Lake Worth, Florida

As a self-described Netflix "missionary," I was beside myself to see its praises lauded in your October issue. As a resident of coastal Mississippi, I was affected by Hurricane Katrina. We lost electricity, water, Internet (which proved more painful than no air-conditioning and water!), and the U.S. Postal Service. When I could access email, Netflix had a note waiting in my inbox letting me know that it was aware of my mail interruption and not only had it temporarily "paused" my shipments until things were back on track, but my next month's subscription would be free. Talk about going above and beyond. This company has changed the way I watch movies, and it's done so by putting me first.

Paula Smith
Purvis, Mississippi

Lip Service

Bravo to Netflix for its technical achievement, but it has much to learn about the full customer experience. When I first learned about Netflix, I immediately signed up. One time, I didn't receive a DVD that Netflix had shipped to me, and when I pointed it out via email, the gist of the reply was, "Okay, but we're watching you from now on." I don't need to have my integrity questioned, so I closed my Netflix account and took my business to Blockbuster. I pay less and have never had to suffer such a warning. Listen up, Netflix: You need to love your customers as much as you love your technology.

John Beck
San Francisco, California

Unbelievable. Best Buy makes your list of "customer-centered grand masters"? Occasionally I find myself subjected to the retail nightmare that is Best Buy for reasons, I can only presume, of my own consumer masochism. I find the entire Best Buy experience to be the very definition of customer abuse, not customer service, from the always-cacophonous stores to the know-less-than-nothing sales associates and omnipresent, woefully understaffed checkout lines.

What Best Buy has accomplished is creating a remarkably sophisticated, very efficient system dedicated to creating the surface appearance of customer-centricity, while in reality remaining as unresponsive, impenetrable, and clueless regarding the real needs of its customers as even the most backward bank, supermarket, or car dealer. It never fails to astound me that most business books' and publications' lists of "excellent" or "customer-centric" retail companies pretty much mirror my own personal list of the most miserable, infuriating, inept, and unresponsive places to consume. Yours turns out to be no exception.

Jim Morris
Evanston, Illinois

I have to wonder if Netflix is getting just a little too big for its boots. Despite the glowing reports of customer service in your article, there are some of us out here who beg to differ. Since I became a Netflix customer five years ago, I've loved it like it was my own child. I've probably recommended 30 people over the years. But recently I had a dispute over how Netflix surreptitiously moves longtime customers like me, who are grandfathered on "old" subscription deals, to a lesser service for the same amount of money. As your article highlights, finding a customer-service phone number is like searching for hen's teeth. And if you bother to write a snail mail letter of complaint to the head office (also an impossible address to find), as I did, at best you'll get a form letter that was identical to the one I received for my email inquiries. Someone, please, tell me how this constitutes great customer service. 

Sharon Barclay
Boston, Massachusetts

Whole Foods' stores are out of the way, expensive, poorly managed, and with less than pristine fish and produce. Call it whatever you want, but shopping at Whole Foods leaves me, and my wallet, feeling a bit more than half empty.

James E. Mason
Las Vegas, Nevada