Customer Service with a smile...

Customer service is key to retaining customers. When you are a one-person business, it is fairly easy to treat everyone equally. There may be some miscommunication but fixing the issue may be a little easier than working with several departments within a large organization. Recently a co-worker of mine was expressing his frustration with a furniture company. Let’s call my co-worker Bob.

About two months ago, he had purchased a new home and desired to purchase a new dining room set. He had purchased a table and chairs from a furniture company, let us name them “Awesome Furniture.” The “Awesome Furniture” sales clerk informed Bob, that the table and chair would be delivered in two weeks. However, the following week, Bob received a call and was told that “Awesome Furniture” was having issues at the warehouse and the delivery would not happen for several months, about four months to be exact.

Bob was dumbfounded as to how a two-week delivery was easily changed to a four-month delivery. After contacting the sale-clerk at “Awesome Furniture,” Bob felt even more confused because, during the discussion, the sale clerk was vague about the four months and mentioned that it could be more like six months. Before Bob could inquire why the sale clerk disconnected the phone. Bob decided to contact the store manager directly to determine why the long duration in the back order, but also resolve the confusion between four vs six-month delivery. Bob had requested that due to the long delay in delivery of the furniture if the delivery fee could be waived.

Communication with “Awesome Furniture’s” management staff was not as fruitful as Bob expected. The manager had promised to return Bob’s phone calls but would never call. Or promise to return email correspondence but would never reply. The manager had appeared to be avoiding Bob’s call by having the secretary screen all calls. Bob felt like the furniture company was taking advantage of him.

Bob finally was frustrated by the process and decided to forward a final email. The email had highlighted the issues and ended with a sincere expression that “Awesome Furniture” cancel his order and return his funds. The entire process had taken longer than a month and Bob was tired of excuses for not explaining the situation. Bob also decided to submit a complaint to the corporate office. “Awesome Furniture” is a furniture retail store with over 800 locations worldwide. In his email, Bob stated that this experience had left a bad feeling of ever doing business with “Awesome Furniture” and would never recommend them to anyone he knows.

After submitting both emails, “Awesome Furniture” manager contact Bob directly to inform him that his furniture was available and would be delivered within the week. After the furniture was delivered, Bob received a call from the Regional Manager David. David was initially confused as to why Bob contact his office when the furniture was already delivered. Bob explained the story of the sale clerk, store manager and issues of getting his furniture. Bob explained how he had requested that the delivery fee is waived.

Bob had expressed his frustration and repeated how he can no longer be a valued customer if his business is not appreciated. David instantly realized the frustration that Bob had endured due to his staff. David offered two additional chairs at no additional cost for Bob. The jester was to retain Bob as a customer, due to David’s understanding that repeat and referral customer is important to the overall growth of any organization. Bob was excited about the offer and agreed in kind to receive the furniture.

The growth of any organization can be hampered by having too many interfaces or different policies. The key here is to have immediate contact with any customer that has an issue. The goal is to validate their concerns and show the change that would please their needs. Bob had informed me that he would have been happy with just an explanation as to why there was a delay with his furniture and if the organization had waived his delivery fee. In the end, it cost the organization a large amount of material cost that was possibly less than potentially losing a repeat customer.