Customer Service War Stories
As a business owner, I always take note of the companies that I deal with from the other side of the counter — even if it’s not aviation related. Whenever I have a good or bad experience, I like to take it as a learning experience.
It seems in the last few months, I’ve either experienced or witnessed extreme ends of the spectrum with regards to customer service.
Take for instance my business partner’s attempt to book a large group of hotel rooms for a family gathering. He wanted to book nine rooms at a local motel. When he called, the booking agent said that the most his computer would allow him to book at a time was six rooms. He said the nine rooms were available but that the computer software would only allow him to book six rooms. My partner asked if he could make an exception — this was a family gathering after all, and he needed nine rooms. The agent held fast and said that he could not do it. At that point, my business partner gave up. He called a different hotel and booked the nine rooms at a hotel down the street.
On the flip side, I have a small side business where I do sound and lighting for small events. It’s something that I got into over the years from spending lots of time and money on sound and lighting equipment for my son’s band. I was recently in the market for a three-color Laser unit that I wanted to enhance my light show. I purchased the unit (somewhat hesitantly) online, and the unit arrived in the mail several days later. I fired it up and the unit would only produce the color green. Upon further inspection, I discovered the unit had a red and green laser diode built in, and combined the two colors to produce a third color: yellow. The red laser wasn’t working, so the unit would only produce green.
I figured that I was in for days of hassle, given that I purchased the unit online. When I e-mailed the company, they were very apologetic and offered to either send me a new unit and a prepaid label for returning the defective laser, or they could expedite and send the necessary red laser diode to replace it myself (a very easy replacement). I opted to take the red laser diode . Two days later, I received the parts in the mail with a few “gifts” included in the package for the inconvenience. The company followed up with a further apology one day later, along with written instructions to be sure that I had installed the part properly. They then finalized the deal with an offer for 50 percent off of my next purchase for the “hassles.”
Needless to say, I am completely comfortable dealing with the company that sold me the laser and will definitely do business with them in the future. On the other hand, my business partner has expressed that he won’t be calling the hotel that wouldn’t book more than six rooms.
How do you approach customer service? Do you treat your customers like they are the most important thing in the world to you? Or do you not care if they go away unhappy?
Send me your “war stories” of customer service and we may run them in future issues of D.O.M. magazine. We’d like to hear about your experiences.
As a reminder, note that on page 37 we are announcing again a call for nominations for the D.O.M. magazine Maintenance Manager of the Year and Above and Beyond awards. Be sure to nominate someone that you know that is deserving — or even nominate yourself.
In closing, the staff of D.O.M. magazine would like to wish everyone reading a happy AMT Day on May 24th. AMT Day is a day set aside to honor the work of men and women around the world to keep aircraft flying safely.
For those of you that don’t know, national AMT Day was made official in 2008 when Ken MacTiernan, director of AMTA (www.amtausa.org) with the help of others in the industry including Richard Dilbeck successfully lobbied to pass HRES#444 in the United States Congress.
May 24th was picked as the official AMT Day each year in honor the father of aircraft maintenance — Charles E. Taylor. Charles E. Taylor was the mechanic for the Wright Flier — the first aircraft to achieve powered flight in 1903.
There will be many maintenance facilities and organizations celebrating this day — and we invite you to send any photos that you have of your celebration to us for publication in a future issue.
Thank you for reading D.O.M. magazine!
Greg Napert, Proud to be an A&P