I ordered an accessory a week or so ago from the company that built my recumbent bike, and I just got a phone call from one of its employees. Here’s how the conversation unfolded, more or less:<\/p>\n
Him: We got your order and we shipped it. Unfortunately, our shipping clerk forgot to update your address and we sent the package to your old address.<\/i><\/p>\n
Me: Oh?<\/i><\/p>\n
Him: Yeah, we got a call from someone named Bob who got the package. He says he’ll hold it for you. Would it be too much trouble for you to pick it up from him.<\/i><\/p>\n
Me: Uh, no, not really. Midland isn’t that big.<\/i><\/p>\n
Him: Thanks. We’re really sorry. Next time you order something from us, remind us about this, and we’ll do something like give you free shipping or something like that.<\/i><\/p>\n
Me: Well, thanks, but that’s not really necessary.<\/i><\/p>\n
Obviously, in a perfect world the company would have noticed my new shipping address and updated their records before sending the order. But I appreciated getting the phone call (at least they had my new phone number) and the honest explanation of what happened. They also demonstrated some practicality in asking if I could pick up the package, rather than having the guy who got it send it back to them, so they could re-ship it, delaying the delivery even further.<\/p>\n
And my guess is that if I do change my mind and ask them to accommodate a special request in the future, they’ll have a note in my file referring to this incident.<\/p>\n
Of course, it’s a good thing I hadn’t moved to another city. Anyway, I think the secret to good customer service isn’t being perfect (although that’s certainly a desirable goal), but in how you deal with the aftermath of imperfection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I ordered an accessory a week or so ago from the company that built my recumbent bike, and I just got a phone call from one of its employees. Here’s how the conversation unfolded, more or less: Him: We got your order and we shipped it. Unfortunately, our shipping clerk forgot to update your address… Continue reading How to keep a customer after you mess up<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9039,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions\/9039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericsiegmund.com\/fireant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}