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Netflix: Still doing it right…

So, I recently got a DVD from Netflix that wouldn't play. Of course, I immediately flagged it as such on the Netflix website, which as everyone knows is phenomenally well-designed with a very high degree of thought placed into every widget, button, and tab. And Netflix delivered the replacement DVD just a day later. No surprises there.

I decided to hold onto the damaged DVD until the replacement came, because I like to hoard the occasional Netflix envelope as a hedge against ones that come damaged in the mail. I'm always afraid that one of them will get torn out of their little red envelopes by an unscrupulous mail handler or by sheer accident.

When I went to send the replacement and the damaged DVD back in the same red envelope, I put little Post-It notes on them describing which DVD was damaged, and which was not. And then I pretty much forgot about it.

But Netflix didn't.

Flash forward a day, and I was momentarily mystified this morning to see an e-mail indicating "We got your note" ahead of the usual "We received your DVD" e-mail in my inbox. It took me fifteen whole seconds of fear that somebody had compromised my account before I realized that they were talking about my Post-Its.

That the "We got your note" e-mail was mostly boilerplate text and links to existing customer-service resources is unimportant; the fact that this firm takes the time to recognize a customer is. (Though offering common solutions to whatever other issues customers might tuck a letter into their return envelope to address is probably a cost-saver, as well.)

In other words, the employee at the receiving facility took the time to flag that I had included "personal correspondence" in the DVD return envelope, and Netflix's system then made sure it expressed appropriate gratitude.

What's remarkable is not necessarily that this happened, but rather, that the mentality for such to be considered important enough to implement --at no small cost, I'm sure-- was there to begin with.

Just goes to show you: companies that have great customer satisfaction ratings don't just start that way; it's part of a carefully orchestrated policy and philosophy that begins at the very top.

Netflix knows it's in a competitive market; it knows that people can choose to drop their few bucks a month with them, with Blockbuster, or with the shop down the street. And starting from a position of "let's please the customer in every way we can" is why they're now the market leader in their category.

This was NOT inevitable; a lot of folks thought that through-the-mail DVD rental distribution was a "Pets.com" idea: a bright-sounding concept that would prove unworkable in reality. And to be sure, Netflix has weathered the occasional bit of criticism, most notably over their "throttling" high-traffic customers to keep costs down.

But it sure is amazing what kind of goodwill a firm can generate to combat the occasional downmarks just by simple thoughtful gestures, yes?

(Update: It certainly doesn't escape my attention that Netflix apparently uses its participation in Google AdWords to tuck advertising into this very post; which may or may not have been positive or negative about them. Yet another way they're doing it right.)