ext337

Sep 19, 02:26 pm: Four customer service stories

Three good and one not so much.

1. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new to me car. It needed a new windshield and the replacement was part of the deal. When I took the car in, I told them about a problem with the glove box. They jumped on fixing it. When I picked the car up, the guy at the desk said, “Yeah, the pollen filter looked pretty dirty so we changed it.” I was all prepped to get mad the sort of what-do-you-mean_I-didn’t-ask-for-that-how-much-will-it-cost kind of thing. When I realized they weren’t charging me. For any of the work. And when I started the car, the tank of gas was full. When I got home, there was a message from the car salesman making sure everything was fine. I want to wear a sandwich board and stand on the street for these people: Vallejo Volkswagen.
2. This morning I got a message from the fine folks at Laughing Squid — the folks with whom I host my sadly neglected personal site. They’ve upped the bandwidth quotas and disk space for all their plans. No extra fees. They say, “This is just one more way for us to say thanks for hosting with Laughing Squid.” I’m going to be busy with the sandwich board.
3. Yesterday, I was at a meeting that included Tara Hunt of Citizen Agency. She took copious notes. And then sent them to all the meeting participants. Not just the regular follow-up-and-here’s-what-you-promised-to-do message but a message that I can just dump into my planner so that I have a good record of the conversation. Above and beyond what I’d expect. Hell, I’m not even her client and I feel like I just got a gift of great service.

And the not so much…

1. We took the old Aztek (yes, yes I did buy one of those and no we haven’t used the camping package but who can resist a car that comes with an air mattress. As a feature!) to a new mechanic. They did a very expensive tuneup — $600 for a bunch of maintenance work but nothing that was actually wrong with the car. Expensive but okay. You have those kinds of tuneups. Over the weekend we drove the car about 5 miles and then, whammo!, Monday morning it wouldn’t start. Jump? It wouldn’t start. My partner called and they calmly informed us they’d charge us for towing and their $100+ an hour labor fee would start as soon as the car pulled into the garage. Really? No benefit of the doubt. It’s their tow truck and their business. No, let’s bring it and figure out what went wrong and then we can talk about money. We ended up having to pay for a new battery but left with a horrible taste in our mouths.

It’s really not that tough to give things that are unexpected. Work small gifts — a phone call, something extra and good follow up note — into your day. I know I don’t do it often enough though. But I’m going to start. And I’m going to start trying to figure out how to institutionalize it.

tagged: customerservice, management