[CobrastanJorji]

It's amazing how a company doing something for you that they don't have to do triggers loyalty.

One time, I bought a couch online, and the company kept stringing me along with "we're behind but it's definitely coming soon" emails until I was well past my credit card's chargeback deadline. But when I eventually called the credit card company, they happily refunded me anyway. Now I will always, always use American Express for large purchases unless I have no other choice.

Amazon used to tell their employees a story about how a customer had his PlayStation stolen off the porch. He called Amazon, and they immediately shipped him a new one, overnight, with no hassle. The customer was a prominent New York Times business columnist, and he immediately wrote a glowing article about how amazing Amazon was, which was hugely impactful to Amazon. It informed the company's "customer obsessed" view for years (until eventually there was just too much money to be made in becoming a marketplace for whatever fake stuff people want to sell).

"Underpromise and overdeliver" is bad marketing advice, but it's fantastic customer retention advice.