Excellent Service from Battlefront

Battlefront Customer Services have a Missing Parts service whereby you can send details of anything you are missing from boxes or blisters of their models. Fortunately I have not had much need of this service and when I used it back in March 2010 I was less than impressed.

This time though I can only say that the speed of service was excellent. I sent an email on Sunday (the 24th) stating that I was missing the Gun Barrels from my M5A1 Stuart Platoon. Within minutes I received an email reply confirming my issue and promising to resolve it promptly. Today, just four days later I had an envelope in the post with my missing Gun Barrels. Now that's good service, and worthy of mentioning.

I don't expect every product to be perfect every time, but I do expect problems to be resolved quickly and to my satisfaction. Customer service often seems to be overlooked by many big companies these days but its vital to keeping customers who usually have lots of other products and companies to choose from. Many moons ago - while I was a student and working part time as a salesman - I learned the simple fact that customer complaints (both minor and major) are not a problem, they are an opportunity. Its a chance to develop a new relationship with the customer that goes beyond the initial sale and demonstrate the value of your company over the opposition.

Its an important lesson that many small (and some not so small) games companies would do well to learn. A quick look at various forums like TMP throw up lots of examples of poor customer service within the industry. And in the Internet age failure to resolve a customer service issue can be messy, public and damaging. I'm a firm believer in complaining - no famous British reserve for me - but I also believe in trumpeting good service when it occurs. Hense this post.