Lego Gets Freaky With Its Customers

Danish company The Lego Group has been in business for more than 70 years selling one of the most popular children's toys on the planet. The company knows a thing or two about customer service. Not only that, but Lego has a documented track record of providing outstanding customer support and engagement -- consistently.

According to Monika Lütke-Daldrup, director of customer engagement at Lego, the company's excellent customer service record is built on a "freaky" concept.

"We have something that we call freaky," said Lütke-Daldrup. "Freaky stands for FRKE, which is short for fun, reliable, knowledgeable and engaging. And those four words are something we've built our customer service on for probably more than 15 years."

The freaky concept is one that seems to be built into Lego's entire corporate culture, making the company one of the very few global entities with an overwhelmingly positive customer service track record. For instance, the company receives more than four million customer calls each year. Up to one third of those calls are about lost Lego pieces, said Lütke-Daldrup. And most of the time, the customer has lost some important piece, which isn't the company's fault. Yet Lego goes out of its way to replace those missing parts, often at no charge to the customer.

"Shoppers and fans reach out to us for many different reasons," said Niels Christiansen, CEO of Lego Group. "They often share photos of their builds and love for the LEGO brand, but they also get in touch with their ideas, perspectives, and questions about their shopping experience. Often, there is no standard reply we can provide, and our consumer services team are incredible in providing great and personal responses."

The personalized, "freaky" approach to customer interaction has paid off for Lego, which has a net promoter score (NPS) of 77, among the highest for any company. According to Hannah Quill, head of writing and tone of voice at Lego, the freaky approach to customer service is both fun and engaging, for customers and company representatives alike. Quill said Lego also encourages its employees to be reliable and knowledgeable, a combination of positive attributes customers won't soon forget.

"It's very important that you're giving the customer the correct information, and that any promise that you're making, you are committing to deliver that customer service," said Quill. "Freaky doesn't solely mean fun and engaging, it also means following through, reliable, customer service."