This week I have come across two very different examples of customer service.

First, I went to a website and found a problem so wanted to contact them. Finding their contact page was easy enough but it had four compulsory field titles (name, email, subject and message) but only three text boxes so there was nowhere for me to actually type a message. Worse, there was no ‘submit’ button either so I couldn’t send a message to them.

Yes, their focus is on getting online sales rather than answering specific queries but the lack of care about letting me contact them left a sour taste in my mouth.

Separately, I have unsubscribed from two ezines this week (yes, my emails are mounting up so I’ve been sorting and unsubscribing this week) where I was pleasantly surprised by the final unsubscribe page. In different ways, both sites gave me the opportunity to report the people sending me the ezine as spam – in other words, they were asking if I was unsubscribing because I never asked for their ezine.

To me, that is honest and upfront. It gave me the impression that they care about doing the right thing and not wanting to spam people. Many people don’t care about someone who unsubscribes as they are gone, but by treating me nicely they have left me with a good feeling about them.

Have you tried using your contact form and unsubscribing from your own newsletter or blog subscription? If not, perhaps it’s time you give it a go…

Those little touches to your website and customer service leave a lasting impression on people. What sort of lasting impression does your website leave?