“This must be the work of Lord Vader!”
This was the response from the LEGO Group when a customer reached out about a missing bag of pieces for his set.
And it wasn’t an ordinary set. Jason Aten shared the story of how John purchased the Star Wars Mos Eisley set in Inc. Magazine. It contains over 3,000 pieces and retails for $350. The instruction manual is 400 pages.
[Mos Eisley is a walk in the park compared to the Millennium Falcon. That 7,541-piece Star Wars set will set you back $800]
John is an AFOL (an adult fan of LEGO). I read once that one out of every four sets of LEGO is purchased by adults for adults.
He reached out to Customer Service and received the following response:
“Dear John,
Thanks for getting in touch with us and providing that information! I am so sorry that you are missing bag 14 from your Mos Eisley Cantina! This must be the work of Lord Vader.
Fear not, for I have hired Han to get that bag right out to you.
Have a bricktastic day and may the force be with you.”
Jason put it best in the article, “…it might be the best customer service email I’ve ever seen. Not only did it apologize for the mistake, and clearly explain how LEGO would make it right, it did it with a sense of personality. That might be the most impressive part of the entire email.”
This response from customer service is true to the LEGO name. LEGO is a portmanteau for the two Danish words of leg godt. Leg godt means “play well.” Well played indeed.
Takeaway: HANDLING MISTAKES is one of 10 types of Purple Goldfish. We all make mistakes in business. How we deal with them is the real question. It’s important to not only correct the problem but to go above and beyond to make things right. Little things can make the biggest difference.
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Stan Phelps walks the walk. He stands out in the sea of sameness by modeling his own Differentiated Experience (DX) message: Differentiation isn’t just about what you say, it’s about what you do and, more importantly, how and why you do it. Stan leverages his unique collection of 5,000+ case studies on customer, employee, and brand experience to engage audiences with informative learning-based experiences. He believes purposeful DX wins the hearts of employees and customers, and differentiation ultimately boosts loyalty, retention, referrals, and results.
Find Stan’s in-person and virtual keynotes, workshops, and Goldfish tank programs at StanPhelps.com.