A few days ago, I received a letter in the mail from Citibank alerting me to fraudulent charges on my account. Long story short, everything got taken care of as quickly as possible. Citibank really showed me what good customer service looks like in five different ways.

1. Someone immediately answered the phone

I don’t care how minimal your problem is. There’s nothing worse than calling a customer service hotline, just to have to wait ten minutes to speak to a real person.

This was not the case with Citibank. I dialed the number provided in the letter and after the first ring someone answered.

2. English was that person’s first language

There is something completely wrong with companies who outsource customer service. Yes, I said it! It is very frustrating to sit on the phone and communicate important matters with someone whose first language is not English.

Thank you to Citibank for not doing that.

3. Patience

The customer service representative and I had to go through two to three months of transactions on my account and not once did he get frustrated with me. He always responded with “Yes, ma’am” and made sure I understood exactly what was going on.

4. Follow-through

I love a company that does what they say they are going to do. I called Citibank on a Thursday. The customer service representative said he was going to overnight me a new card. I really thought I was going to get the card next week seeing as how the weekend was so near. But nope, that was not the case. When I came home from work, there was a FedEx package waiting on me with my new card inside.

5. Loyalty

I’ve read studies that show most people my age aren’t as loyal to companies as people who are in their 40s to 50s. Not once did I ever feel like I needed to change banks because the customer service was that good and my money was deposited back into my account immediately.

The customer service representative also said this to me before hanging up the phone, “Thank you for banking with us for over five years.” That really made me feel appreciated and showed that they value me as a loyal customer.

P.S. I tweeted about my experience and they tweeted me back! Not only did they reaffirm that they appreciate my business, but they also told me to have a great weekend. Sometimes, it’s the little things that count 🙂