What passes as a good customer service experience

Posted on | March 15, 2009 | No Comments

So there was a story a while back about a woman who went to Best Buy to purchase a camera for her grandson.  She was sold a used camera with pictures on it.  It was defective, she returned it and was accused of breaking it herself.  Well her son-in-law went to great lengths, and using the power of the Internet, was able to get Best Buy to do what they should have done in the first place, apologize, replace it, and make right by the customer.  Now I’ve worked at Best Buy back in the late 1990s and I can say the place  wasn’t stacked with the most honest and trustworthy people.

So in order to get Best Buy to apologize and replace the camera it took the power of the Internet, bad press, and forensic proof that they were on the wrong side of this issue.  Now once the wheels were in motion, the apology flowed.  Now having worked at Best Buy I can also say people did some shady things.  Returning VCRs (this was back in the late 90s like I said) with phone books in the box and resealing them to look like they’d never been opened. Customers can be very sneaky but for the overwhelming majority, they want a good product or service at a reasonable price. I have no issue paying for something I got and I am not the type who would get home and break something and then return it saying it was like that in the box.

I’ve had my credit card company call me and ask if I made a certain charge.  I could have said  no and I’ll say with 99% certainty they’d never come back and say you lied.  They’ll issue a charge back to the merchant, he’ll have the burden of proof, and most likely he won’t be able to prove I bought it.  Woohoo, free crap!  Making a living is hard enough as a small business or even a large business, I’m not one to cheat others.  So why would Best Buy, really the only major national electronics retailer now that Circuit City is gone, need to argue over say a $200 camera?  They don’t, that’s the issue.

No one in Best Buy cares about you.  I don’t care about you, I’m focused on my day and it’s going to be a day form hell.  It’s a sad reality but people are primarily concerned with themselves.  Now if you’re a Crowd Rent customer the story changes.  Not because I’m some greedy individual trying to make a buck but because you are now part of my world.  The success or failure of Crowd Rent falls squarely on my shoulders.  In an effort to make it successful I need to ensure my customers happy so now you problem is my problem and that’s the difference.  Suzy Q at Best Buy doesn’t care if grama got a bum camera, the store isn’t closing if she fails to act.  In my case I do care because we need loyal and happy customers to grow.  Come back in 10 years when we’re mega-corp Crowd Rent and I sold out to mega-mart.  It wouldn’t be the same.  I have a personally and financial interest in seeing happy customers and so does everyone who works on Crowd Rent.  We’re all owners.

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