Sunday, October 3, 2010

Kudos for Customer Service done right

I've had a good string of excellent customer service experiences lately, so I thought I'd take a moment to recognize these companies for a job well done:

Netflix
About 6 months ago we conceeded that we had officially lost a movie, so we paid the $15 so they would send us the next movie in our queue.  At the time they informed us that if we found it within a year, we could return it and they would credit the amount back to us.  Well sure enough, a couple weeks ago I was moving furniture and there it was.  I shoved it in the return envelope along with another movie, shipped them off, and the credit was immediately applied to our card with no other action required on our part.

Lowe's (Rogers, AR)
We bought a replacement faucet for the kitchen sink in our rental house. When we opened the box to install it, a piece was missing, so we took it back and exchanged it for another box no problem. We got that one installed but it wasn't sealing properly and water was spraying all over. We removed the pull-out handle and associated parts and took it back. We got a 3rd box, opened it up in the store, and realized it was also missing a piece, though not the one we needed. Lowe's basically allowed us to rifle through the box, swapping out the pieces we needed until we had a functional set. We took it home, and in 5 minutes had the job finished and everything working great.

(On a side note, I think somebody over at the Moen plant needs to step it up in quality control.)

Definitive Speakers / Best Buy
About 4 years ago, Christie and I bought a home theater system from Best Buy, including 2 Definitive brand tower speaker units with built-in sub-woofers.  A month ago one of them started acting up, producing a lot of interference-type static, even when the TV was off. I took it up to Best Buy to see what my options were on a repair. It turns out that the speakers carry a 5 year manufacturer's warranty. Best Buy sent it back to Definitive, who determined that the amp and woofer were blown. They replaced them and shipped it back to me in about 2 weeks, and it didn't cost a dime. Wow - now there's a company that knows how to stand behind their product.

Trend Micro
A great example of a company who had some hiccups and still created a positive experience through good customer service. My internet security and virus subscription expired, so I renewed online. They sent me an updated program install to run. However, installing it on my Windows 7 box gave me an error that it was not compatible with that version. Clicking the "search for solution" button took me to a page on Trend's site stating that to resolve the issue, they were offering a free upgrade to their newer product, which solved the problem. However it didn't recognize my updated subscription and said I was expired. I went on their site to use the "chat with a tech" feature, and within 2 minutes they had the issue resolved and I was up and running.

Thanks to these companies and the helpful staff - I am a loyal customer because of it!

No comments:

Post a Comment