Congratulations Emma Crossett!

Emma Crossett from Brother New Zealand is the October winner of an Auckland Awesome Service Award.

She was nominated for the help she provided to Katinka Keys:

"I don't even know where to start telling you about this young lady. I don't know her, I have never met her. What I can tell you that she is the most extraordinary, efficient, charming and  generous person I have ever come across in almost 50 years of being in business.

I had recurring problems with a Brother printer. Brother's agents serviced the printer several times (while printer was still less than a year old !).

The service people fixed the problems, but they recurred. Each time it was very frustrating, and the cause of repeated backlog of work and missed deadlines. The domino effect of not having all files complete became a nightmare.

The problem was referred to Emma Crossett Marketing Manager - Brother Printers, to deal with.

From the very first moment, Emma profusely apologised, empathised and understood my frustration and anger. She immediately offered to replace printer with the latest model.

 While many organisations would do that, she went way beyond this. She was equally concerned ensuring that Brother mades up for the "bad experience" and also arranged other concessions to a very generous degree.

But the clincher was her attitude, her genuine intention to sort this through to everyone's satisfaction.

She did not just pay lip service to customer relations to get this problem off her back.

The steps she has taken to ensure that I was happy was beyond anything that anyone has a right to expect, and she has followed up repeatedly since. 

She has given me her personal mobile number, so I may call her day and night and weekends. I won't, but what an offer! 

She also offered to have my printing work done during the changeover period between printers.

Emma's boss also deserves a huge thank you. Unlike many CEOs he was not primarily concerned with the bottom line, and accepted this as a lesson to learn from, and how to improve their service for customer problems in the future.

He and Emma turned around a very upset client to one prepared to highlight great customer service via the Auckland Awesome Service Awards.

While I often grizzle about appalling service, I always thank people for great service, often via a letter to the company.

 However, I have never come across anything remotely as superb as Emma's genuine wish to help.

The way Emma resolved this situation should be a textbook case for anyone working in a people-contact industry.

Congratulations Emma Crossett - Brother New Zealand!