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During our recent move we had to deal with a multitude of vendors and contractors, with varying degrees of satisfaction and/or success. From this experience, both Mrs. MZM and I had an amazing range of customer relations experiences, but today I’ll share just a couple of stories. Perhaps we can all learn something.

All you sales and marketing folks out there take note! In spite of the best-laid plans and the best of intentions, always remember the Golden Rule of Project Management: Sometimes Things Just Happen (STJH). The key thought is that when they do (anyone remember Murphy?), your customer’s service experience becomes a true defining moment. We, your customers, can be convinced to forgive and forget, but it’s up to you to make the experience a positive one.

Kitchen Cabinets

The kitchen cabinets were improperly finished (unless you call “sandpaper” a finish) and needed to be resurfaced. This was brought to the builder’s attention, but one day when visiting the house during construction we encountered the local regional manager for the cabinet manufacturer, who was also inspecting them. He was appalled at the workmanship (I’m shocked, just shocked!) and promised to make it right by sending several of the worst cabinet doors back to the shop, and then within the week, bringing in his “best man” to refinish the cabinets on the spot.

True to his promise, the cabinets were all refinished and several doors replaced, all within the promised timeframe. Our dealings with the company were pleasant, productive, and they did what they promised. In the midst of the moving madness, this was one of the things that ended well. (Of course, it would have been nice if they were done right the first time, but as previously observed, STJH.)

Sofa and Chair

As a rule, we never buy anything we can’t see, touch or feel before bringing it home. The only exception in recent years was our new sofa and chair, since we had to select the fabric for each. This is always something of a risk because from past experience getting refunds for broken or poorly made “custom” (meaning we ordered it with a particular fabric, not had it custom-made; I’m not made of money!) furniture can be a real pain in the tookus. (For some strange reason, when a vendor puts fabric on your furniture, they think you ought to take it no matter what the quality. I have never understood this attitude.)

Well, unfortunately, neither sofa nor chair are acceptable. Regarding the sofa, although we like firm cushions, these are so firm that when we sit on them, they don’t squish down like normal cushions; in fact, our feet don’t even touch the floor! On a firmness scale of 1 to 10, I would rank these about 15. And the chair… well, it’s no good either, but for different reasons.

So now begins the process. We had to visit the local store and demonstrate the, ahem, firm cushion. First problem was our salesperson wasn’t in, so we had to ask for a higher-up. Well her attitude was there “might be a problem”. Hmmph. We compared the cushion with one that it was supposed to feel like, and I practically had to push her down to make her sit on it. Then she grudgingly admitted “there might be an issue here.” We’re to call this number and they’ll “see if there’s anything that can be done.” We got the distinct impression that since we weren’t her customers, she couldn’t have cared less.

It’s stuff like this that makes the blood pressure rise. Who do they think they are? Once again, a blown customer service opportunity.

So Mrs. MZM, God bless her, calls the number and asks for the guy, but he’s out. But… she ended up talking to the Service Manager for the entire chain of stores. So she unloaded on him. Amazingly, he took every detail down, agreed we were treated poorly, and promised a response right away. Within the hour, the co-owner of the chain caller her back and solved the problem to our satisfaction. He was also appalled at the treatment we had received and promised to “take care of it”.

We’ll see how quickly they resolve this one, so the jury’s still out.

Fast Food

Naturally during this time there was no time to cook (or even a place for food until the refrigerator was delivered), so we became quite familiar with the local fast-food eateries. Mrs. MZM stopped at a Chick Fil-A near us to order lunch, and after placing her order stepped aside to wait. While waiting, at least three other employees stopped what they were doing and asked her: “Can I help you with anything?”, “Is there anything you need?”, and “I’m glad you came by today. Won’t you come back again?”. And they weren’t even behind the counter!

Now that’s a positive customer service experience we’ll remember!

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