 Oh,
So You Want Me To Ship It To the Manufacturer?
By Ed Rigsbee, CSP
(822 words)
The following is a true
story. It illustrates the need for even management to be nice to their
customers—for a variety of reasons.
The brothers Long
started a drug store in Northern California a number of years ago. By
the 1970’s they had built a respectable chain in the north and had
started expanding to Southern California. For years, when I was in the
sunglass business, I sold to this glowing chain. Throughout the 1970s
and 1980s they grew and I sold sunglasses to most of their stores. I
really appreciated the amount of business I earned from them over the
years. Also, over the years, the department heads that I worked with in
the early days became store managers and one, a district manager.
Because of my loyalty
to this particular drug store chain, I continued doing business with the
store in my community for years after I was no longer in the sunglass
business. As a matter of fact, to this day, my family still uses the
store in my community—the one that I personally set up their sunglass
department when the store opened for business.
With all of that being
said, one day in the late 1990s I visited my local store to return a
camera that I had purchased that turned out to be defective. It was an
evening and I ended up getting help from the store’s assistant
manager. While she did not remember me, I remembered when she was a
clerk in the cosmetic department. She told me that she could not replace
the camera because she did not have that EXACT one in stock. She told me
to ship it to the factory and they would take care of it.
After selling
sunglasses to this chain for almost two decades, I was reasonably
familiar with their return policy. It was less the fact that she told me
to send the camera back to the factory, but more her attitude. I knew
that she had the authority to do pretty much anything she wanted to do
to take care of the situation. She could have given me a refund. She
could have given me the same brand camera but the next model up, which
she did have in stock. But rather than to serve a customer that had been
shopping at the store since it had opened, about 10 years before, she
selected to have an attitude (the big A in Ego Attitude Training).
I didn’t make a fuss
about her lack of customer service—instead I simply left the store
with my defective camera in hand. Unfortunately for this assistant
manager, she decided to (in my opinion) to screw over, a longtime
customer who coincidently knew her boss’ boss pretty darn well. In
fact, I had served Ron, the district manager, as a vendor to the chain
for about 20 years. She made a BIG MISTAKE!
Because my personal
relationship with the chain (a number of people from clerks to
executives) was much stronger than any single employee, I mailed a
friendly letter to Ron explaining the situation. I told him that my
relationship was with the store, and not the manufacturer. I also
mentioned my thoughts on customer retention and a couple of other
thoughts. I did not ask him to take action, but simply informed him
about the behavior of one of his managers.
It took a few weeks,
but wow! The letter of apology from this assistant manager was amazing.
Not only did I receive the apology but also it came with $20 worth of
store script (about the retail difference between the defective camera I
wanted adjusted and the next model up). Also, in her letter was the
pledge that if I brought my defective camera in the store she would
personally exchange it, even if she had to upgrade it.
I never took her up on
her offer to exchange the camera but instead just left her wondering if
I’d ever come back. No need to in that situation, the camera was a
great brand and I had sent it to the manufacturer myself the next day.
Within a week, the manufacturer had mailed me a replacement. I did
though use the store script—heck, why not?
Ron, the district
manager, is a really great guy so I’m sure he didn’t rip the
assistant manager’s head off—at least too much. But I must admit, I
would have really enjoyed being a fly on the wall at that meeting. Is
the moral of the story to be nice to people who know your district
manager? I don’t think so. How could one ever know?
Just be wonderful to
every customer—just because you should. Besides, you never know whom
they know. Being crummy to any customer could prove to be a career
killer—you just never know!
To
access helpful additional information from Ed Rigsbee at no charge,
please visit www.rigsbee.com/downloadaccess.htm.
# # #
Adapted from Rigsbee's forthcoming book titled, Customer
Service Screw Ups--Learn from the Mistakes of Others. In this book,
Rigsbee rants about the crummy customer service he has received and offers
suggestions on how you can truly partnering with your customers.
Ed Rigsbee, CSP is the author of PartnerShift,
Developing Strategic Alliances
and The Art of Partnering. Rigsbee has over 1,000 published articles to
his credit and is a regular keynote presenter at corporate and trade
association conferences across North America. He can be reached at
800-839-1520, ed@rigsbee.com, or
visit www.rigsbee.com.
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