Earlier this week I had a few posts about the Millennium Music Conference (the rest of the posts are on their way). On the second one (MMC15 Part 2), I had a point that David Sherbow made: customer service is your job.
Just 10 minutes ago I was reminded of how good customer service can affect your relationships.
Far too often do we see companies with "restocking fees" and crap like that. Basically they're saying that if something is wrong with your product or if you need to take the product back for any reason, that that is an additional service that you must purchase from them.
I've heard many complaints about how someone has mail ordered a guitar to find that it was defective. When they had to ship it back in order to get the quality that they paid for, they had to pay the shipping both ways. This is essentially a fee for the warehouse's negligence.
It's becoming harder and harder to find good customer service. That's why when you find it, it's like the best thing ever.
American Musical Supply just blew my mind with their service. About 3 weeks ago, I ordered a guitar case. Well then a few days ago I got an email from AMS, asking me to write a review for my purchase. This reminded me that Oh, right, I don't have my case yet. I went down to the school post office, talked to them, and, unfortunately, they didn't have anything or have record of anything coming through. Then this morning, right before class, I emailed AMS, asking them what was up - the order said it was delivered, but I didn't have the product. It took a simple explanation of my situation and, by the end of class, I had a reply saying that they would just send me another case, asking where would be the best place to send it.
Customer service is about going out of your way for the customer, for your fans.
I recently purchased This Time It's War's debut album online. A few days after receiving it, I got an email from them, asking if I had received the album, what I thought of it, and just thanking me for my purchase. I replied - they replied - etc.
That is what customer service is. It's a means to building relationships by showing your customers/fans that you care about them.
This was through USPS? I'm beginning to really not like them. That's awesome about the customer support though.
ReplyDeleteYeah it was USPS... They should be sending me a new case in a few days. I guess we'll see if USPS screws up again.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I was really impressed with how well that was handled, how quickly it was taken care of and just how they treated me as a customer.