Customer Service – A Response
As expected, my last post stirred the pot a bit.
My intention was to use my experience as a jumping off point for a discussion on customer service, hence I omitted names from the story. However, as everyone who read probably gathered, if you were involved in the incident or even worked at the shop in question (it’s probably a pretty distinct label), you would have probably been able to deduce where I was.
As an illustration of how fast word travels here in flagstaff, my post made it back to the manager of the shop in less than 48 hours (and he tracked down my cell phone number in short order as well).
I just got off the phone with Anthony from “Absolute Bikes”:http://www.absolutebikes.net/flag_frset.html, and we had a very good discussion about what happened and how concerned he was with it.
I have generally had good experiences at Absolute, and I think that is why this one took me by surprise. The personal response that I got shows how dedicated Anthony is to making sure that somebody has a good customer service experience at his shop.
I’m sure the post isn’t quite finished making the rounds, but I hope that more than causing discomfort for anyone, it will help bring to light some things that I feel are important to a good customer service experience, and maybe cause some discussion around the topics. Like I said in the post, I like shopping locally if I can, and I hope that the talking points I put up can make some of the local businesses become even more appealing to shoppers. It’s a tough thing to survive in the world of dot-com discounts as a local business, but you can’t take customers for granted.
I appreciate the effort Anthony put into tracking me down, and I want to publicly thank him for the response.
You can be sure that I am a more loyal customer now.
I would add to your list of customer service points: Don’t make an assumption of my knowledge base before speaking with me. This probably falls in line with your “don’t interrupt” point, but I have frequently been sized up upon walking in to a bike or gear store as a less-than-knowledgeable consumer. That is probably the bottom line on why we return to the same store over and over, and why employee retention is such a critical part of a business plan: once we know the employees and the employees know us, we are much more likely to have a good experience there, involving the exchange of information rather than the patronization of our knowledge/experience base.
- daralyn
Link | April 10th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Nathan…next time you roll through the Valley, please visit some of our bike shops. Many of them are in need of some “throat punching” and a “handlebar sandwich”. Thanks for the good read.
- rhino monkey
Link | April 10th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
as my mom’s dad, Fred, used to say… “see this – instant death,” he’d wave his left arm at chin height. “see this – never been tested…” his right arm about level with your chest, still as a gun sight.
Fred was a veteran of the Korean War and one hell of a ornery old man that loved his family and friends. he little patience for shit heads.
it’s that kind of orneriness that kids these days call street cred. problem is, few of us walk the same walk.
bottom line is – ACTIONS SPEAK VOLUMES, THAT’S WHY IT’S SOOOOO IMPORTANT TO BE NICE TO EACH OTHER. like the golden rule. like karma, only harsher if you’re lame.
thanks for being so frank and constructive. Mr. Frank Maximus would’ve been proud. the world is a better place now.
- Japhyrider
Link | April 10th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Dara – I completely agree. I think that is one of the underlying parts of the ‘ask first, inform later’ point as well. Assuming that you know anything about somebody just by looking at them is always a bad idea.
I hate to say it, but I also have seen too many times a gender bias in bike shops. They tend to be a bit of a ‘dude fest’ and can, unfortunately, be a tough place to overcome that horrible stereotype.
I actually had a female friend in college who was starting to get into biking, and insisted that I went into the shop with her at first because she felt like she couldn’t get any good service without a guy there. Eventually, one of the shops that we went to occasionally hired on a female who was incredibly knowledgeable about bikes. The first time we walked into the shop and she was working, she walked right up to my friend and treated her like a real person. That day, we walked out of there with a brand new bike for her, and I didn’t say more than 3 words.
Rhino – I haven’t been to too many shops in phoenix, but I’ll see what I can do.
Japhy – I hope that I was constructive more than destructive. Fortunately, it sounds like I may have been. I actually might just print out a copy of these posts and attach them to a letter to Frank. I know he’d be proud.
- Nathan
Link | April 10th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Yeah word does travel fast here. You really have to watch what you say and to who. People get there egos hurt and make a bunch of drama out of minor things. Too bad they cant just spend that time riding their bike.
Seems to be a hard balance in a bike shop to compete with the internet and still be able to pay people enough to make every customer feel special.
- Dini
Link | April 11th, 2008 at 7:21 am