I am a Nintendo fanboy. Well, kind’ve. OK, so I really do like the Nintendo brand, but I’m not a bigot: I know that the PlayStation and Xbox are top-quality consoles. Of course, the PlayStation and the Xbox are made by Sony and Microsoft, respectively, and I cannot honestly say that I’m “brand loyal” to either company; however, when Nintendo releases a new product, I’m more than willing to give it a chance, even if it has “Virtual Boy” written all over it.

Why am I so “brand loyal” to Nintendo? Well, Chris Pirillo once asked me, “Does Nintendo even matter anymore? Why bother getting its ‘revolution?’” The answer: because it’s Nintendo.

This isn’t for nostalgic reasons: As a child I never bought into the “Nintendo” brand name. Instead, I identified with the major games of the time. No, nostalgia isn’t the reason, It’s how it has treated me as a customer during my lifetime.

During my life I have seen Nintendo set the gold standard on how customer support should react to a situation:

When the Famicom first launched in 1983, Nintendo actually recalled the product because of numerous malfunctions and re-launched it with the problems fixed.

When the N64 launched, there was a problem where buttons on the controller would break. Instead of blaming the players, the company offered replacements free of charge (and free shipping).

Finally, from my own experience: back in 1990 we needed to get our NES repaired because it stopped playing games altogether. We could not find any authorized dealer in my area, so we gave Nintendo a call… but we were still unable to locate the dealer it spoke about. After a couple of days of back and forth on the phone, the customer service department at Nintendo of America sent us a brand new NES, and a pre-paid shipping box to send the damaged NES back in.

All of this is in stark contrast to how Microsoft and Sony handle customer service. Their motto is “if it’s broken, buy it again… and good luck finding someone who speaks English!”

So, while I won’t be a “Nintendo exclusive” gamer (I love Halo), I’ll continue to give Nintendo my business, because I know I’m not only paying for a quality product, but I’m almost guaranteed great customer service should anything happen.

See, Sony/Microsoft? Customer loyalty isn’t a myth. You guys should look into it one day.

[tags]marketing, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, customer loyalty[/tags]