Service and Complaints

We are a completely service driven organization; the message starts at the top and the directive is to do everything we can to service our customers in a remarkable fashion...that means operating with speed, a sense of urgency, striving to be mistake free, and generally working much harder than any of our competitors to solve problems and provide solutions.

BUT...I still get complaints from time to time, and I ALWAYS make time to discuss things with customers who are not happy with our service or policies.  I have told our team that they are to direct complaints to my phone, I want to hear from these people because behind every complaint is an opportunity to make your business better - and if you can resolve a problem for someone they are often eternally grateful.

One issue that is coming up a lot lately is our return policy...bathroom safety equipment is not returnable and all other returns have a 14 day window, after which they are not accepted.  Both of these facts are printed on all of our paperwork and we work hard to clearly communicate this to everyone we interface with at the point of sale or delivery.  But we still get complaints and still hear from people who want to speak to "whoever is in charge" or "the owner" at which point I get on the phone.

I do not make exceptions to these policies, that isn't fair to people who have been unable to return things in the past.  What I do is try to explain things, from my perspective, and see if we can't find some common ground.  Would you want to purchase bathroom safety equipment which had been in someone elses home - even if that person swore up and down it had never been used?  I didn't think so. 

I have had good luck and I often go above and beyond to make people happy; last week I personally jumped in my car to deliver a deeply discounted product to someone who was dissatisfied.  The customer had a point about the way something was communicated to him - and though I can't make an exception I can recognize a situation where we should have or could have done a better job, and then I can do what I can to go above and beyond.  When I was done the customer was extremely satisfied with the overall response and experience and said he'd be using us for a product for his mother in the near future - which was gratifying to me.

We ALWAYS aim to please...sometimes we fail, or sometimes there's an issue with a policy but at the end, no matter the actual resolution, we try to make people feel they have been treated fairly and humanely - which greatly helps their overall impression of who we are and how we treat people, even if they may not agree with the end result.

Service isn't always about what happens or who has what at the end of the day, it's about how it happened and how people feel they were treated.  Recognize that and use it to guide your business decisions and you will be much better off, as will your customers and consumers everywhere...