About a month ago I ordered a windshield wiper from Amazon.  When I got the wiper, it was the wrong one.  I asked for a replacement, it didn’t show in the system as having been returned.  I went to the customer service chat to resolve the issue.  During the course of the chat, the person the other end wrote, “I would love to have been able to help you but I am not able to resolve this issue.”  That stuck with me for a while.  It didn’t catch me as the right response.

Scale of the issue

At the top of my thoughts is that the response was overdone.  Did this person really have so little going on in their own life that they love to fix my windshield wiper problem?  Seemed like a poor choice of words. 

I would love to have been able to clean your pool.

I would love to have been able to go to the dentist in your place.

I would love to have been able to water your houseplants.

I would love to have been able to pay your taxes on your behalf.

It doesn’t work.  No one says they would love to have done a task that is unenjoyable.   It’s not believable or authentic.

Sincerity when dealing with clients

One of the bigger points I try to make with our real estate brokerage is not that we “try” to be sincere.  It’s that we are sincere.   There’s a huge difference between the two.  When people try to be sincere, it comes across as manufactured or overdone.  When we are sincere, it’s authentic.   It’s much easier to trust an agent who is helping you through a big decision in purchasing or selling your home when they are sincere in their words, actions, and deeds. 

Amazon does billions of dollars’ worth of business each year.  The customer service responses aren’t agents speaking their mind.  They are trained over and over on what words to use and how to respond to customer issues.  I was really surprised that they would go in this particular direction because of it’s lack of authenticity.

Have you ever been in a situation where the customer service response you got didn’t line up with your thoughts of how it should have gone?  How did you respond?  Post a comment in the comment section below.  I’d love to read them 😉  (see what I did there?)

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