I am a devotee of Seth Godin. I have seen him in person at SES Toronto, read lots of his books and subscribe to his blog. One of the things I took away from Seth’s writings is the importance of customer service. Two of my past employers have had excellent customer service policies that worked on empowering employees.
I know that sounds strange, but in both cases the customer service started with the front line workers. They were empowered to do whatever they felt was required to achieve excellent customer service. For example when I worked for Opus Art Supplies, a customer called in to complain they hadn’t received the tube of paint they wanted, they had gotten the wrong color, in fact had recieved a much more expensive color. So I was in a position where I could have told them to return it and I would exchange it but instead I told her to keep that color as way of an apology and I would send her the correct one immediately. It cost the company maybe $4 or $5 but the additional customer goodwill more than made up for that.
The other place was at a restaurant called Campo Marina. The boss, Mike Oran, would frequently go out of his way to make people feel welcome and often would deliver samples of some treat he was making to people to try out. He would frequently drop off free appetizers to customers and in the summer, the busy season, we would always have a table set aside for our regulars just in case they dropped in without a reservation.
I recently had what I think of as a Seth Godin moment. I ordered a computer, well the parts really, from Tiger Direct. I got a bare-bones quad core, a new video card, and a new cartridge for my printer. First they said delivery would be around the 21st, I just recieved the first shipment on last Friday two weeks ahead of schedule, except I just recieved the case and the ink cartridge. I am still waiting for all the important parts. The exceeding expectations is good, except the glass panel on the side of the case was broken, and when the rest of the parts arrived the power supply was shot.
Another issue I had was the original confirmation was for $1116 except their website screwed up and forgot to charge sales tax and shipping. Now I could have kicked up a fuss and said the additional $195 was not what I had agreed to, and demand they take everything back. However, I think part of commerce is being a good customer. They were absolutely right to charge me sales tax, and it was fair. However in exchange they should recipricate in some fashion. They have agreed to eat the $70 shipping charge, however given the broken case, shorted power supply, my wasted time and general FUBAR of this order I would have hoped they would go out of their way to make sure I am happy.
I guess they really don’t care if I remain a customer.