Let me begin with a real life example. This night I came home, found a letter from the bank, with a new American Express credit card for my company. Of cause I ordered the card, but the service is commodity – Amex do live by sending their credit cards to customer 😉 The key differentiation factor, started when I needed to call the credit card activation service (hint: and by the way – you only have three tries, and then you die…). I typed the activation code two times, and was told every time that the numbers were wrong.
Hmm. Seems odd, but okay. I had a long day, didn’t quit follow the guide (never mess with a running system). So I typed the numbers again, and no!
“Dear Sir. You have tried to activate your American Express three times, but we could not acknowledge the numbers you have entered. Please contact your local bank for get more help”.
It is now, I really hate banks, because they are NEVER open when you need them, and now my Amex card will not be activated L
What an experience
Five minutes went by, and my mobile phone began to ring – icon showed a call from USA? Hmm… In fact this is where I stated the fact that there is a reason for using American Express.
“Dear Sir, my name if Jamie I am your customer service representative. I saw your card got flagged for bag authorization codes, and I was wondering if you experience any problems in activating your card”
Three minutes, and my card is activated. Small piece of information was needed (removed for security purpose). THAT is fanatically good support.
In real life American Express have all my information. They simply monitor all activation calls, and flag potential big spenders, to give them a good start on their American Express account. And the funny thing is, that this is very simple: with no active card, Amex does not get any business.
But what a nice feature!
rasmus foged blog 