Why American Express Has My Loyalty

About two and a half years ago, we got a Gold American Express Card. They were offering a bunch of points (50,000) and waiving the annual fee for a year. As they say…”It was an offer we couldn’t refuse.”

Though there were great benefits that came with the Gold Card, they were currently unnecessary for us and our lifestyle, so the $125 annual fee was not a good investment. But we really liked the customer service of AmEx. So after the “free” year was up, we continued patronizing AmEx and switched to a Small Business Card.

Yesterday was another reminder of why we really like that company.

I got an email the day after our bill was due. A thoughtfully written email, basically saying, “Hey you didn’t pay your bill and it was due yesterday.”

I was in a panic and we immediately called them to pay over the phone.

This is what I love about AmEx: Not only did they waive all fees for paying 24 hours late, but they didn’t act like it was some huge favor they were doing us.

We have years and years of pre-AmEx experience with other card companies, and the difference of how this phone call went is like night and day.

The woman on the phone looked at our account, saw what great customers we are, realized that this (paying late) was a fluke (my excuse was that I was so wrapped up with the kid’s first week of Kindergarten that I forgot to schedule the payment online, like I normally do) and kindly took care of it all in less than two minutes.

In a world which lacks great customer service, common courtesy and genuine people skills, the employees of American Express are a breath of fresh air.

And it's smart business.