01 Sep 9-1-16 Great Customer Service
As is typical with my comments, this isn’t about customer service in our industry, which is remodeling, or how we do customer service in our company. It’s about the principle behind customer service. So I have a couple of stories.
About 4 years ago, my wife and I purchased one of these high end blenders to make smoothies, milkshakes, and other things. Now this isn’t the regular blender you get at Wal-Mart. This one was made by a company called BlendTec and is amazing. You can even make soup in it because the blades spin so fast that they actually warm up what it’s blending. I have seen videos on-line showing all different kinds of things people will blend up in the BlendTec, like cell phones, golf balls, bottles, etc. This is a high dollar blender but it works 100 times better than the regular old blender.
After using this thing for almost every day for 4 years, it started making an unusual sound. I determined it to be some bad bearings in the blades that spin around. My first thought was, well I got 4 years out of this thing, I guess I need to buy a new one. Unfortunately, this whole canister, with the blades, is over $100. That’s not the motor, it’s just the canister thing you put on the blender motor to make the smoothies. Anyway, when I was on Blendtec’s website, I noticed they have a 5 year warranty on their products. I filled out a form on their website, explained the problems, gave them the serial number of the blender, and hit submit. Within 12 hours they e-mailed me back, apologized for the inconvenience, and told me they would send a new canister out immediately, at no cost. I got it yesterday and used it this morning.
I recently purchased a rather nice poncho to use when I’m hiking. The first time I used it, the little pouch this things stuffs into ripped. It was probably something that was just sewed incorrectly. It was pretty expensive and I didn’t want to have the ripped pocket for the next 15 years. I contacted the manufacturer, Exped, and they told me to send it to them, they would repair it or replace it for me. That was pretty simple.
Lastly, I have a Tumi suitcase and brief case. Both were expensive but they are 10 years old and look brand new. When the airlines ripped a zipper handle off, Tumi sent me 10 new ones at no cost. Tumi explained the handles are designed to break off so the airlines don’t ruin the entire zipper.
What I wanted to point out is that we get what we pay for. I know I pay a bit more for the things I purchase, but I’m always happy with my purchases and will purchase more from those companies because when something goes wrong, they take care of it. Their customer service is superior and makes customers feel great. These three companies treated me very well and now I am a champion of all three. Not only because of the great products, but because of how they back up their products.