We have seen the depths of customer service over the past year or two, and we’ve seen the stars of customer service. While it sucks to get really lousy customer service, it helps us recognize and appreciate when we get great customer service. I’ll take a trip down to the depths of Hell to provide some perspective. OK, maybe I exaggerate just a bit....
City of Delaware
The City of Delaware can be incredibly disappointing in many ways, but I’ll focus on the easiest target – Billing for the Water Department.
The one month, we got our water bill, and it showed we only paid $10 of our $110 bill. Laurel called the Billing Department, and they indicated we only paid $10. I pulled up our bank information online, and the cancelled check showed we paid the entire bill, and they had endorsed it. They finally figured out we were right.
A couple months later, we got our bill, it showed we hadn’t paid at all. We called, and they said we hadn’t paid. Laurel asked them what we should do, and they suggested we stop payment on the check and send them a new check. We did that, and then on the next bill, we had an extra charge due to the fact that they had mysteriously found the original check, and it was rejected by our bank since we stopped payment, so they received a charge from their bank that they passed on to us.
I was angry since it was their fault, but my complaints got nowhere. So I wrote to the City Manager. No response. I wrote to the Mayor of Delaware. No response. My view on correspondence is I’d rather get a reply of “Go to Hell” or “Eat Shit” than no reply at all. At this point, we now drive to Delaware, hand-deliver our payments, and get a receipt to avoid these issues going forward.
America’s Floor Source
We had some flooring done, nothing major, but it involved carpeting and laminate flooring. We had worked with America’s Floor Source previously, so we felt like they were a safe choice. As noted, this wasn’t anything major, and the salesperson indicated it would be a two-day job.
I’ll take part of the blame for this one, from my work experience, you never pay the full payment until the job is done. I figured, it’s a two-day job, what’s the big deal? Yeah, I’ve gotten soft in my old age.
One day was the carpeting, one day was the laminate. Each day, it was a different set of contract labor. The carpeting group screwed up, and cut the carpet wrong, and they fell short of having enough carpeting. The laminate group didn’t get done with their work either. This was just the start of our two-month, rather than two-day project.
If it were only the long delay for the completion of the project, that would be one thing. But Laurel essentially had to serve as Project Manager for the job. She would almost daily call the salesperson from America’s Floor Source, and inquire when they would be out to fix whatever was left undone each time. And, each time, we would get a new set of contractors. And each time, the laminate installers would say it was the carpeting installers job and vice-versa. Laurel had to eventually get firm with the contractors, and say, “No! You’re supposed to complete this!” We still have various baseboards with damage to them, they never fixed everything completely, but we were just happy to see them go.
As noted, two months, no apologies, nothing from America’s Floor Source. Yeah, I’m partly to blame, if I wouldn’t have paid up front, it would have probably been done a lot sooner, and they may have apologized along the way. Then again, maybe not.
Ricart Buick GMC
By far, the grand champion. Let me give you an idea of just how bad it was. We have had a GM Credit Card and bought GM vehicles ever since the mid-1980’s. We have bought, I think, 17 straight GM vehicles in that time. With our latest experience, we have cancelled our GM card, and we will never buy another GM vehicle.
Laurel had a 2018 Buick Encore, and we decided to get her a new one, and pass her Encore down to me. We found one that she liked, and we thought we were in good shape. And then, everything went to shit. I could go on and on about all of the issues we had, but let me just give a brief summary:
· Within the first three months, the check engine light went on four times. Each time, we would have to take it back in for service, and leave it at the dealership. In those first three months, Laurel drove the car about 700 miles, since it spent so much time at the dealership. I researched it, and it probably qualified for the Lemon Law, but I just wanted her to have a car that worked.
· The “humor” was the questions she would get from service. How old is your cell phone? They thought it was draining the battery. How far do you drive each day? Do you leave the car in the garage or outside at night? When the car is parked at night, how far away from the car is the key fob? It seemed that they kept trying to come up with a reason we were to blame for the issues with the vehicle.
· The “best” part was when they gave Laurel a loaner car. In the dead of winter, they gave her a red convertible Chevy Camero. Their reason was that the rental car company next to them only had one GM car, the Camero, and General Motors would not pay for the rental of a non-GM vehicle. My response was “Your answer should have been, GM wouldn’t pay for a non-GM vehicle, but we will.”
· After three months and at least four trips to the service department at Ricart, they finally solved the issue with the help of the engineers at General Motors. The last insult to injury was the fact that we never received any calls or apologies from the management at Ricart. As noted, we were life-long GM loyalists, but of course, that just really doesn’t matter. Ricart obviously could not give a shit.
As I’ve re-lived these experiences, it really occurred to me what made me so angry in each case. It’s not that people made mistakes, everyone makes mistakes, as I often say, I probably make at least 100 each day. I have no problem when people make simple mistakes, my issue is that no one at a higher level in the organization sees the need to apologize. I’ve learned from my career, customers typically can be very forgiving if you just own up to what happened, and say you’re sorry. But in each case, we received no acknowledgement, no apology.
Which brings me to the ones I really want to talk about, those companies or locations that know how to deliver great customer service. A taste of Heaven....
Apple – Polaris Fashion Place
After my computer crashed and burned last year, and I experienced yet another lousy experience at Micro Center (I’ve bored you enough with bad service), Laurel convinced me to go the Mac route. This was a major shift for me, I’ve been using Windows-based products all my life, and I wasn’t sure if I could make the transition. Numbers? Pages? Where are my beloved Excel and Word? OK, I can run those on my Mac, so that’s not an issue. But as some of you know, there are a lot of subtle differences between Mac’s and Windows-based products.
Buying my new Mac went incredibly smoothly. We had just recently bought new IPhones, so we were somewhat regulars at the Apple store. Every purchase experience went really well, they make it all so seamless, each person plays a role, and they do it well.
Afterward, we decided to take some of the free classes Apple offers for IPhones and Macs. In some cases, we were the only customers, and in other cases, there were a few more people, but in each case, we were treated very professionally, and with a great deal of respect and patience. While I have lived with technology throughout my work career, as noted, this was a new experience for me. Laurel has become much more familiar with Apple products, but there was a great deal that she still didn’t know either. We were given grand tours of our products, we probably have forgotten more than we remember, but it was still an incredible experience. Every single trainer we encountered treated us very well.
After so many trips to the Apple store, I figured out who the manager, or one of the managers, was. I went up to her the one day we were there, and asked her, “Are you the manager here?”. I got one of those cautious, delayed, “Yes?” I assume she was waiting for whatever complaint I had to offer. I told her, “Well you must be doing an outstanding job, because we’ve been here several times lately, and we’ve had a great experience every time.” Unfortunately, I don’t think people hear comments like that enough.
I would glowingly recommend this Apple store to anyone who is thinking about buying an Apple product or needs some training on their devices. They have never let us down.
Athleta – Easton Town Center
I always love to buy Laurel clothes for her birthday or Christmas, but I have a major flaw in my shopping tendencies. I guess I like certain types of clothes, certain colors, certain styles. And, of course, I’m older, and my memory isn’t the greatest anymore. Not sure it ever was….
I’ve had so many occasions where I find something I love, I get it ready for the holiday, she opens it, and she then has to tell me/show me that I got her something virtually identical, last Christmas, for her birthday, whatever. Or, of course, I have those moments where I don’t get the sizing right, and she then has to return it. I won’t go into my fine shopping experience where I bought her big petites, thinking that would work. Not my best moment.
I’ve developed a “full-proof” (fool-proof?) plan with the help of the ladies at Athleta at Easton. Each birthday or Christmas, I load up a bag of Laurel’s yoga clothes, and I go to Athleta. I find one of the helpful ladies there, and empty my bag, so they can see what Laurel has, what styles she likes, what sizes she wears, what colors she already has. And then we go on a shopping spree, and they help me find clothing that Laurel would probably like, new colors, the correct sizes, it works almost perfectly each time. They’re also really good about steering me away from a color that possibly/probably isn’t right based on Laurel’s current color choices.
Each time I go there, and I’ve been doing this for a few years, they patiently help me find nice presents for Laurel, and we’ve had few issues of wrong sizes or wrong styles, nothing is ever perfect, but this is close. OK, you may say, this benefits them, they make more sales, but from my standpoint, so what? I really believe this is great customer service, and I’ve never had such great customer service at any other clothing store. They will get my business every year.
Garage 36 in Delaware
By far, the best automobile service center I've ever dealt with in my 50+ years of driving. I happened upon them after a bad service experience at a garage in Worthington. I had a feeling that I was being ripped off, but I'm far from an expert on mechanical issues. I always rely on my brother Jim, who has a great deal of experience, and when I sent him a copy of the bill, he said, "Yeah, you really got overcharged". It wasn't my first bad experience, as noted, I'm not an expert on cars, so I'm a pretty easy mark.
I received a referral to try out Garage 36 in Delaware, and I figured, it can't get much worse. Well, it didn't, in fact, it has been a Godsend to me. I never feel like I get overcharged, and even better, when they can avoid a repair and save me money, they do that. They are always responsive, they provide great follow-up to let me know the status of my repair, and I've never had any issues with delays or problems. Justin does an outstanding job running the shop and providing great service, and Abbi is outstanding at customer service. She is always prompt and thorough in providing feedback on our vehicles. Plus, she's one of the nicest young ladies in the world.
And there you have it. I wish I had more examples of great customer service, but sadly, I think that is just a fact of life with the way we have evolved. Customer service is a dying art, and very few take it seriously. I hated reliving the really bad service we’ve had from a few companies or service providers, but it made me really appreciate the ones I mentioned that provide outstanding service. I would encourage you to give each of them a try. I realize that Apple and Athleta are niche products, so you may not have any interest there, but if you do, I highly recommend both of them. And Lord knows, we all need car repairs, and I can assure you, Garage 36 will never disappoint.
