I don't like rants - but after the hellacious experience we had with Direct TV last week I have to rant a little. We've all had the experience of waiting on the "cable guy" to arrive between 8: 00 AM and 5:00 PM. (I don't know of many other businesses that can get away with this arrival time window.) After having a appointment scheduled for over a month the cable guy didn't arrive last Tuesday like he was supposed to. We had everything ready, the furniture pulled away from the wall, wires hanging down everywhere and then nothing to show for it. 6 phone calls later and Direct TV tells me they can reschedule 10 days later. The short story is I blew a gasket and they made it out the next morning.
But guess what this bad experience did? It made the furniture delivery experience I had the following week a delight ~ even though 2 pieces were damaged and the furniture company had to redeliver it 2 days later. Here's where the difference was:
The furniture company called and gave me 1 hour notice and showed up in exactly 1 hour, they delivered the furniture in a professional manner and left. After noticing damaged pieces I called the store (The Dump) and within 30 minutes they had rescheduled the new pieces to be delivered 2 days later. Two days later I had the same 1-hour advance phone call and they arrived in exactly 1 hour. Yes, it stunk that I had to have the furniture redelivered - but the store did exactly what they said when they said they would do it.
This brings to light a critical point in jazzing up the sales of your business.... Just do what you say you are going to do! And if you are not able to do so, tell your customer ASAP. Sure they may get upset ~ but customers will get more upset if they feel they've been lied to. Full disclosure of a failure to execute on a promise is your best bet for long term sales growth.
But guess what this bad experience did? It made the furniture delivery experience I had the following week a delight ~ even though 2 pieces were damaged and the furniture company had to redeliver it 2 days later. Here's where the difference was:
The furniture company called and gave me 1 hour notice and showed up in exactly 1 hour, they delivered the furniture in a professional manner and left. After noticing damaged pieces I called the store (The Dump) and within 30 minutes they had rescheduled the new pieces to be delivered 2 days later. Two days later I had the same 1-hour advance phone call and they arrived in exactly 1 hour. Yes, it stunk that I had to have the furniture redelivered - but the store did exactly what they said when they said they would do it.
This brings to light a critical point in jazzing up the sales of your business.... Just do what you say you are going to do! And if you are not able to do so, tell your customer ASAP. Sure they may get upset ~ but customers will get more upset if they feel they've been lied to. Full disclosure of a failure to execute on a promise is your best bet for long term sales growth.
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