Now THAT’S customer service

Two days ago, Netflix Instant Watch was down for a few hours. In our house, Netflix and Hulu have replaced cable all together. So when I fired up my Xbox and couldn’t access Netflix, I was definitely disappointed. The service was back up and running in a few hours, so all was well in the end. I can’t remember another time when the service was unavailable on Netflix’s end. Xbox Live has been down a couple times (a service, for which I pay about what I pay for Netflix, mind you), but neither are down so often that it’s really a point of outrage.

Yesterday, however, Netflix did something that the whole online services industry needs to pay very close attention to. They gave me a credit on my account because of the outage. I got an email offering a 20% refund on my month’s service. It’s a tiny sum of money in the grand scheme of things. But spread across how many customers? When’s the last time Comcast offered you a credit on a lapse of service? Half past NEVER? I’ve had days of service interruption from Comcast — a much more expensive service — without an apology, let alone a credit to my account. Netflix, an $8/month service, was down for a few hours and went well out of their way to apologize. It was a small gesture of good faith, and if I didn’t already love Netflix for the service they provide, I’m definitely a fan now of how they do business.

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