AT&T customer service employee saves customer's life

Recently an AT&T customer was talking with their customer service service department. He started having symptoms of a heart attack and eventually passed out during the call. Rather than hang up (because the customer became non-responsive) the AT&T employee (Kelly Hart) knew something was wrong so she called 911.

The customer ended up in the hospital with a stent in a major artery.  When he got out he let AT&T know what a wonderful person they have working for them. In fact, he and Ms. Hart finally met in person on CBS’ “The Early Show” where the tears flowed all around.

(Read the full story here.)

Too many of us have experienced customer service calls where the employee can barely manage to work their way through the script in front of them. And if you say anything not related to their script, they have no idea what to do. Some freeze. Others stammer and sputter. Sometimes you hear someone (in the ‘background’) telling them exactly what to say to you .

If a person can’t answer a simple question or have a “how’s the weather” type conversation then I doubt they’d be much use if their customer dropped to the ground with a heart attack during the call.

Of course, most customer service employees will (thankfully) never have to deal with this situation. But that’s not really the point is it?

If you hire people only to train them to a rigid, programmed script, you’ll give your customers a lower quality experience. But if you hire smart, caring, motivated people and let them be themselves, you’ll get better results. Your customers will have a better experience. Your company will get better feedback. You’ll keep more customers coming back.

And, once in a great while, something amazing will happen.

Other articles you might like:

• Customer Retention Tip: Let your employees be real
• Real people rock
• Scripts can ruin a business
• Have Real Conversations with Your Customers
• Customer Service Advice: Lose the Scripts. Hire Friendly.