Good Customer Service is Priceless
Those that read this blog regularly, know that I am a very frugal person. When it comes to finding the best deal on a product, I usually go out of my way (within reason of course) to get the best price for an item. When I say within reason, I mean that I won't drive half way across the city just to save 50 cents on some granola bars. It's simply not worth the time or effort. If I am debating between purchasing two products with one costing slightly more but is better quality than the other, I will often pay the premium for the better quality.
For example, if I go to a discount grocery chain to purchase red peppers, and all of them are mushy (ready to expire literally any hour from now) but they are dirt cheap, I will walk away and go to a better grocery store and pay more for better quality red peppers. Or, if you're not picky and don't need a specific vegetable, you could always buy an alternative vegetable that is in season and save the trip to the other store altogether. But I digress...
So we've established that many people such as myself are willing to pay a premium for better quality. To me that's a bit of a no brainer. What about the idea of paying more for better customer service? On the surface this might seem silly. Why should I pay a premium for better customer service you ask? Shouldn't all customer service be good?
Sadly, customer service can be the difference between a great company and an okay company. Take for instance I recently had an issue with a product that I've had for 6 months now. This was discovered last week. Unhappy with the situation, I took my product to the store to have it looked at. The tech person had a look at it, and after about 15 minutes, determined that there were no signs of abuse and immediately gave me a brand new product to replace it at no cost to me.
This truly surprised me. I went to the store angry and ready to put up a fight. I cursed the company's name in my head. I vowed never to purchase one of their products again. How can a product just fail like that after 6 months? I had even printed out copies of my original purchase receipt and some email correspondence I had with their online tech support. Instead of acting confrontational, the company answered all my questions politely and reassured me during the whole process.
To me the customer service was excellent for 2 very important reasons:
1. The customer as able to leave satisfied. I had all my questions answered and got a satisfactory outcome (product replacement)
2. They listened to the customer carefully and not once did they brush me off. The customer wasn't treated like a chump that bought a product and got screwed. Respect.
In a time when lots of companies have lousy customer support, it was very reassuring that I was looked after properly. To some people, these things may seem small, but these are the exactly the type of attributes that successful companies have.
Based on the excellent customer service that I received, this company has won me over as a customer for life.
For example, if I go to a discount grocery chain to purchase red peppers, and all of them are mushy (ready to expire literally any hour from now) but they are dirt cheap, I will walk away and go to a better grocery store and pay more for better quality red peppers. Or, if you're not picky and don't need a specific vegetable, you could always buy an alternative vegetable that is in season and save the trip to the other store altogether. But I digress...
So we've established that many people such as myself are willing to pay a premium for better quality. To me that's a bit of a no brainer. What about the idea of paying more for better customer service? On the surface this might seem silly. Why should I pay a premium for better customer service you ask? Shouldn't all customer service be good?
Sadly, customer service can be the difference between a great company and an okay company. Take for instance I recently had an issue with a product that I've had for 6 months now. This was discovered last week. Unhappy with the situation, I took my product to the store to have it looked at. The tech person had a look at it, and after about 15 minutes, determined that there were no signs of abuse and immediately gave me a brand new product to replace it at no cost to me.
This truly surprised me. I went to the store angry and ready to put up a fight. I cursed the company's name in my head. I vowed never to purchase one of their products again. How can a product just fail like that after 6 months? I had even printed out copies of my original purchase receipt and some email correspondence I had with their online tech support. Instead of acting confrontational, the company answered all my questions politely and reassured me during the whole process.
To me the customer service was excellent for 2 very important reasons:
1. The customer as able to leave satisfied. I had all my questions answered and got a satisfactory outcome (product replacement)
2. They listened to the customer carefully and not once did they brush me off. The customer wasn't treated like a chump that bought a product and got screwed. Respect.
In a time when lots of companies have lousy customer support, it was very reassuring that I was looked after properly. To some people, these things may seem small, but these are the exactly the type of attributes that successful companies have.
Based on the excellent customer service that I received, this company has won me over as a customer for life.
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