When I was in college, one of my professors told me a story about when McDonalds was finally able to expand their chain to Russia. One of the trainers who was interviewing applicants asked a woman what she would do if there was a long line of people waiting to be served. She basically said she could always just ignore them until they went away. I guess years of communism had conditioned her to not care about customer service when it came to her job.
We had a dishwasher that we bought an extended warranty for since our large family goes through so many dishes. When the washer broke, I called the manufacturer and they said that they would send out a local repairman who works for them. I scheduled the appointment for Monday morning but he never showed up until Monday evening. He didn't have record of the purchase or warranty which I was previously told he had. When we finally got things taken care of we still had to pay more than the prior quote for the service call. It was not a horrible experience, but I wasn't impressed either.
The next day I noticed that our Moen shower faucet was stripped and wouldn't change between the different water settings. I looked up their 800 # and called them. I spoke with a real person quickly and she looked up my name and address and asked what the problem was. She said they stand behind their products and she would Fed Ex out a new shower head to replace the old one. That was it, not even any shipping fees. I was impressed, especially since they had already replaced the shower head years ago for free and it was not a workmanship issue, but rather a result of our hard water.
I once took my wife to Panda Express for dinner and the selections she ordered were pretty sparse and didn't look too fresh. The manager started dishing them up but then decided to throw it in the garbage and had his cook make up a fresh batch of her selections. He also offered us free drinks since we had to wait a few minutes longer while the fresh food was being prepared. I appreciated the fact that he valued the quality of the food more than just getting us through the line fast.
What are your experiences with customer service? I'd especially be interested to hear any good experiences you've had. What are some of the businesses you have been impressed with over the years?
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