Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Customer Service in a Bad Economy

When I was about 15 years old a friend of the family hired me to work as a part time seasonal cashier in the luggage store he was managing. Because I totally rock, it eventually turned it into a full time gig. I paid my way through college working retail, starting in high school as that Christmas season cashier and moving on to everything from sales to stock to eventually Assistant Manager. During this time I developed a strong sense of what good customer service is. As a result, I tend to have pretty high standards.

I'm that person who asks to speak to the manager when the customer service rep at the cable company is being rude. I'm also the person who asks to see the manager when a waitress does and amazing job and should be recognized for it.

Recently I've had two customer service experiences that have been really great. My Polar Heart rate monitor was dead. As in, no display. I was fairly certain it just needed a new battery but because I need it to be water proof, I had to send it into a Polar repair center to be fixed. I printed out the repair form from their website and was just about ready to send it in. Then I noticed that they recommend authorizing $75 for the repair. I quickly called the repair center and explained that I only spent $100 on it in the first place and frankly if I was going to spend $75 to repair it, I'd rather spend a little more and upgrade to get a couple extra features. The woman explained that I could just have them call me before they do the repair and that if it was going to be more expensive they actually offered a trade in program that would save me about 30% on my upgrade. AWESOME! I sent it and luckily it was just a simply battery replacement. All said and done a little over $20.

Just a couple weeks ago tragedy occurred when after a run I removed my Maui Jim sunglasses and one of the titanium ear pieces snapped in two. I nearly passed out when I looked at repair instructions on their website and found NOTHING about replacement ear pieces (only the bridge) for my model of glasses. Again, I called preparing myself for the worst. The lovely woman at the repair center informed me that there was no pricing listed for the ear pieces... because they replace those for FREE!!! I should just include the $10 processing fee. I boxed them up, sent them off and about a week and half later opened a box to find my Maui Jim's in a new case, with BOTH ear pieces replaced. AWESOME!

I've also recently heard many stories of people calling to cancel or change services such as cable or satellite radio and the customer service reps bending over backwards to keep them as customers. So my question is, do you think good customer service and a bad economy are correlated? A few years ago I had a tragic thing happen with a Coach purse. Now, Coach is one of those places that I can pretty much ALWAYS count on EXCELLENT customer service. But, I sent my purse in for repair and got back my unfixed purse and a letter for 40% off my next Coach purchase. Talk about disappointment! Coach has a lifetime warranty but wouldn't fix it. Maui Jim has a two-year warranty that had long expired and they fixed it and sent me a new case.

Are companies fighting to keep their customers now? Hoping maybe if they fix the broken item they own today the customer will be more likely to purchase a new one from them when times turn around? I have to say my experience with Maui Jim and Polar certainly gives me more confidence in making purchases from them in the future. Now, I'm not saying I won't buy from Coach again... but it's been a few years and I'm still carrying the 40% letter around waiting for the PERFECT bag.

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