Customer Service

Written by Joey Iwen

Customer service is so important- I value it as much as (or more than) the product or service itself, sometimes. If there’s a choice to be had, I will always go with the company that has better service, even if it means paying a higher price. And I will be a fiercely loyal customer of anyone that provides good service. Some companies value this more than others, and it always shows when customer service is a priority. Sometimes customer service shows up as friendly service with a smile, and other times it’s being understanding and empathetic when there is a problem. Employees provide great service when they are knowledgeable about their product or service, and they can in turn, educate you on that product or service. It means being flexible and providing a discount when someone encounters a problem, or a discount or extra something for being a loyal customer especially when you aren’t expecting it. Good service is taking a product back when it’s not right and replacing it without blaming the customer. There’s a hundred ways in which good service can be provided, and just as many ways in which bad service can be delivered. 

I was so pleased with the customer service I got from Crocs the other day. I tried ordering a pair of Crocs for everyone in the family for Christmas on Cyber Monday. (I used to snicker at families with various sized Crocs lined up at the door, but I discovered what a lifesaver they are for camping, and now we love them and WE are one of those families!!) I was placing the order on my phone in bed late that night, as this is the time of day when I can actually get things done without being interrupted. After spending a lot of time finding everything I wanted and entering my order, I tried to checkout with PayPal since I didn’t have my wallet in bed. But something went wacko and I ended up getting redirected to a website I had been at earlier that day and my order didn’t go through. No problem, I’ll just redo it, with a slight bit of annoyance. But when I got back to the Crocs site, all of the Cyber Monday deals had been replaced with regular pricing, (it was now Full-Price Tuesday), and my order just went up by about $50. Ugh. I decided to wait until morning to deal with it. The next day I initiated a customer service chat and explained my situation, thinking that they would probably say tough luck, sister- shouldn’t have waited until the last minute! But she asked if it would be okay if I got a code for 40% off my order and free shipping. Uh, yeah! So even though I had to go through the process again, I got a better deal than I would have gotten placing my original order on Cyber Monday. Great service, Crocs! You’ve just made me a loyal customer, and I will probably be buying a new pair for my kids every year as their feet grow like crazy! Fiercely loyal. 

Although it’s nice to get a good deal or treated like royalty when you are shopping or dining somewhere, Yesterday I was reminded what good customer service is truly about. For the past couple of days, my car was making an odd noise when I would slow down to stop or drive at a slow speed. Or turn slowly. I could tell it was coming from the driver side wheel area. Since we live on a gravel road and have a long gravel driveway, my car gets pretty dusty. And when it rains or snows (which it had last week), the roads get pretty sloppy and a lot of junk gets plastered up in the wheel wells and surrounding areas. This has caused an issue before (was it something to do with a 4-wheel drive indicator light staying on?), and I was hoping that said junk was caked in the wheel area, causing this annoying sound. My glass-is-half-full mentality was hoping that a car wash would fix this annoying sound, so I was planning on trying this before calling the dealer to get an appointment to come in to get it fixed. It did not. No surprise to most of you. I had taken my daughter into Omaha for a dentist appointment, which involved a half hour of interstate travel as well as frequent stop lights. After we rolled through the carwash, I could tell my noise was getting worse (and more embarrassing), and now I was feeling vibrations under my foot when I braked. My noise had been escalated to a serious problem that needed to get fixed before driving much more. I dropped my daughter off at school (yay, we made it back safely!), and considered my options while sitting in the parking lot watching the kids play happily, mask-free, at recess. I could call the dealer where I normally get my vehicle serviced. I wasn’t really sure how quickly I would get in, and this is another 35 minutes away via interstate and stoplights. I would probably be stuck there for a few hours while they performed the service. Ugh. I could try the local auto repair shop, but what are the odds that they’d be able to get to it quickly, either, or have the part I needed for my specific car. I decided it couldn’t hurt to pop in to see when they might be able to take a look at it before I resorted to calling the dealer. (I really didn’t want to drive that far away again in it!) 

I stepped into the little office at Fort Calhoun Auto Repair, and the owner popped his head in from the garage to see what I needed. I explained my noise and wondered what the odds are that he could look at it in the coming days. He said, “let me clean up my hands real quick and I’ll drive it a second to see if I can tell what it is”. And so he stopped what he was doing and looked at it right away. He immediately identified the problem, and then showed me on the wheel where the problem was (brake pads and rotors). John explained that if the problem got worse, it could cause other things to go wrong (something about pistons, maybe?), which would be an expensive fix, and that braking quickly could cause my brakes to fail or dangerously veer to one side. Didn’t sound very good. He recommended I leave my car there because it wasn’t good to drive it in this condition. He asked me where I lived and told me he could give me a ride home. I hated to inconvenience him, but Brad was back home in the studio with clients photographing some products, so he couldn’t come get me. John insisted it was no big deal to give me a ride home, and so we drove the 7 minutes back to my house chit-chatting all the way. Turns out he knew my next door neighbors really well, and that he has worked on their vehicles for years. When I got out, we agreed I’d call him in a bit so he’d have my number on caller ID, and would call me back with an update. I wasn’t a regular customer of his, so he didn’t have any of my information- he just took care of me because it was the right thing to do. 

We spoke a few hours later, and he informed me that he had the parts on the way from Omaha, the approximate cost, and that he thought he could get it done by the end of the day or tomorrow morning. Wow! While feeding the chickens a couple hours later, I got a call back that everything was done and my car was ready to be picked up. Double Wow! After wrangling the chickens back into the coop, the whole family got in the truck and we headed to the repair shop. It was 5PM, six hours after I stopped into his office to check in with him, and here he was with my finished car. I was so truly impressed with this service, and here are a few reasons why: 1)- I showed up unannounced, no appointment, and he didn’t make me feel bad about it. 2)- He stopped what he was doing to give me his undivided attention and address my need. There were several cars in the garage, and so it wasn’t like he was just waiting around for work. 3)- He identified the problem right away and educated me about it without making me feel dumb for not knowing what the problem was (I’m not completely stupid regarding cars, but I’m no Click and Clack). 4)- He wanted me to save money by not incurring further costly damage by driving it. 5)- He made it really easy – I didn’t have to fill out a bunch of paperwork before he would start the work, and he drove me home for Pete’s sake! 6)- He took time out of what he was doing, potentially cutting into his lunch time, to drive me home. He put the customer first. 7)- He connected with me. I’m used to taking care of my own problems, but I’m not exactly in my element in an auto-repair shop. He didn’t make me feel strange, ignorant, or talk in terms I couldn’t understand. He made me feel comfortable, and then he treated me like a friend or neighbor. 8)- He set appropriate expectations, and then over-delivered. 9)- The final price was a good value and there were no surprises. He told me an approximate estimate, and it was very close to that. I’m sure it would’ve been more expensive at the Toyota dealership, and I would have had to drive far and waste half of my day there. 10)- He had my best interests at heart. He was worried for my safety, so he made sure that I didn’t get into an unsafe situation by driving it more. 11)- He valued my time. He understood that it would be inconvenient for me to be without a car knowing I had kids to shuttle around (obvious by the booster seat and lack of tidy interior), so he wanted to get me going again as soon as possible. (I said a few, so I guess I’ll stop at eleven reasons, since you’ve got the gist of it by now). 

I do think living in a small town breeds this kind of service. Neighbors helping neighbors. It could also go the other way, too- if there’s only one option in town, do they really have to provide the best customer service since that’s all there is and you go there because you have to, not because you want to? But I could genuinely tell that John was sincere in all that he did to serve me as a customer, and THAT’S what makes really magnificent customer service. Not the cheesy, canned, corporate phrases that lack meaning (like hearing “It’s my pleasure” 50 times in 20 minutes at Chick fil-A). Not something taught in a corporate HR class as part of their mission statement training. It’s doing the right things for all of the right reasons, from the heart. I’m a big proponent of and love supporting local, and I will be a fiercely loyal customer of Calhoun Auto Repair from now on. And I will tell others about it. Because when a business provides great customer service, their customers not only stay loyal, but they are the best marketing and advertising tool available. Besides making customer interactions meaningful, providing great customer service is really essential for your bottom line, too. It’s good to check yourself every so often to make sure you are truly doing the best things in the best ways for your customers. Not only will your actions create loyal customers and success for your business, but it really makes doing what you do worth it.