simplerich

Here’s the scene. A lady bought a refrigerator and a stove for her new house. She called to say that she thought her thermostat wasn’t working on the oven and they tried trouble shooting the problem on the phone within the first six months. It’s a sixty dollar service call after all, even tho the work would be free – so she thought. The trouble shooting didn’t fix it. She called again a month later, got a different person who did the same things. Finally, in despair she quit trying to get the problem fixed. She never told them she’d tried this already and never told them it still wasn’t working. Fast Forward four and a half years. The oven is still not fixed. Every time she bakes and it’s not good she says “It’s that damned stove from Mongo’s!” Here’s the thing… they didn’t know they hadn’t fixed it the second time.

So, four and a half years later I walk onto the show room and explain what had happened to the owner of the local business. I explained she felt like she was bothering them and didn’t want to upset anybody, but she’d been using a counter top toaster oven for four years and complaining to everybody who would listen about how bad they were and I knew that wasn’t true and wanted to help. I too had a local business on the same street and we’d seen enough businesses on that street go out of business to big box stores. Couldn’t lose another one. An empty street hurts all of us. So, I bought a part, one of two things that could cause the problem. I asked him to lie if she called, say he’d just given it to her to make it better. He said, “But that makes us look like the good guy and we weren’t!”

I grinned and said “We both know that but she won’t and you need image repair in her eyes.” The thing is, THEY didn’t know they had a problem. She hadn’t made it clear to them in a way they understood that there was something wrong. She just ran around telling everybody how bad they were. I think she dropped the ball by not letting them know it was still broken. I thought they dropped the ball too, but not following up, but so did she… also by not following up. I wanted to fix it. I was tired of undercooked fish, and feared undercooked pork would kill me one day if she used the oven.

The part didn’t fix it so I went back. The next part was expensive. She said she’d buy another stove first, and not from them. I explained this to them. Asked what could we do to fix it because I really didn’t want them to lose a customer and every customer whose shopping she influenced because I KNEW they were better than this.

The owner’s wife was working the counter that day and got me free service calls. The part at cost, and an apology. This is four and a half years after the thing was bought, well outside of warranty. She wanted to make sure her customers were taken care of.  The owner did as well, and both of those people were doing what they could to take care of the situation once they found out about it. The family and she were happy with the resolution. I hope the owners are happy with it. I’m glad they stepped up. They had a chance to lose a lot of face with a lot of people. There were lots of eyes on them for this thing.

If a customer doesn’t complain we, as customer service people, salesmen, never have a chance to make sure they’re happy. “Service after the sale” is more than a saying on a banner. I think Ted Porter gets it too. I heard him recently on The Story on NPR. He talks about how his Employee & Customer Service focus is what’s keeping him going strong through these troubled economic times (take a drink). Listen to his story on TheStory.org.

One of the things I like about Ted Porter’s story is when he talks about how important it is to him, how his job satisfaction is based on having happy customers. That sort of person WILL have happy customers. In my business we are pretty small, we don’t have everything our customers want, but I’ve trained my employees when possible to help the employee find who DOES have the thing they’re looking for. If the customer leaves us happy, but without what they want that’s better than them leaving us disappointed in us without what they want. If we don’t have it they’re going to leave empty handed. I’d rather they left happy than not. When I bought my car my salesman called two days later to ask how I was liking it and if there was anything he could do for me about the car, any concerns I had. He gets it. He knows it’s about the customer. Not just because it’s a feel good thing… but because happy customers come back.

A friend of mine has a survey about Customer Service and how it has or has not changed in recent months. If you have a minute or two, it really is short and quick, give it a look. I’ll let you know when the results are posted.