Mistakes are an Opportunity to Prove Yourself

I arrived home today to find that my little euonymus shrub was murdered by the new lawn service people.

They just ripped right over him and cut him down to his roots. I was devastated.

Too angry to call the contractor myself, I let Erin do it. She left a message telling the new guy how unhappy we were that he killed my shrub, and missed a section of the side lawn.

To my pleasant surprise, Gary came to the house within hours of the phone call, had one of his guys instantly fix the spot that was missed, and promised to replant a new, bigger euonymus. He also encouraged me to call him any time we have a problem with the service. I was pleased with his response, especially since we've had so many problems with lawn service contractors in the past year.

Mistakes happen. And how a business handles those mistakes is a true measure of their value.

I'm big on customer service. And probably because my team and I do our best to provide quick and courteous service to clients and customers, I get really annoyed when businesses don't provide good customer service to me. I believe that the customer may not always be right, but the customer always deserves to be heard.

What kinds of customer service blunders really annoy you? Do you have a customer service philosophy? Please share your thoughts.

Comments

[Jared Goralnick]

Customer service in business is easy:

1. Call your phone or cable provider.
2. Take notes.
3. Place the word 'Never ' in front of each line.

I'm in the same boat as you, and I do wince whenever I have to call some contractors or vendors. If only the world could get the message that most services are commodities and there's no better way to differentiate (or charge more) than to treat the customer right.

[Jen Koretsky]

Great point about the cable and phone companies, Jared! And I agree - treating your customers right is an excellent way to stand out from your competition.