Polite Pays

Years ago I had a boss that I had an especially good rapport with. We used to swap stories about various things. He especially enjoyed hearing some of the advice my father used to give me. He called my father's advice "Dad-isms."

Here's a favorite "Dad-ism"

My father owned his own business. He used to say that things will occasionally go wrong. They just do. And you'll have an unhappy customer. Or someone will ask for something you're reluctant to give them. For whatever reason.

My father said that the necessary fix was usually immediately apparent. The important thing was to do it as quickly and cheerfully as possible with no debate and no drama. When the exchange is over, you want your customer to leave feeling happy and validated.

Get value for returns / exchanges / refunds / do-overs
If your manner is grudging or unenthusiastic, no matter what the outcome is, the end result is a ticked off customer. They may have received what they asked for, but they will still be upset when they leave and in that case, you receive zero value for giving something away. And you've probably lost that customer.

This advice applies to a lot of situations in life. If you need to yield, apologize, relinquish, do it quickly and willingly and get value for it. Being gracious pays off.

Completely counter productive customer service.

Last week I spent more than an hour with a salesperson selecting coordinating bedding, drapes, etc. at a local designer fabric place that also sells nice linens. Their stock of bed linens is limited; they place orders for most of what they sell.

I ordered a bedspread with coordinating shams. After a discussion with the saleswoman, I decided to hold off on the largest part of my order -  duvet cover, more shams and drapes until I saw how the bedspread looked. None of it was custom, it was all standard issue - completely re-sellable.

I decided today to exchange the coordinating shams for shams that match exactly and wrap up the rest of my order. So I took the shams back this morning. Nicely folded, in the original package, with the receipt.

The woman that originally helped me got all twitchy
Her: Ooh... you can't return these.
Me: WHAT?!?
Her: We had to order these - there's a restocking fee IF we even CAN return them.
Me: That's a problem... I wasn't told any of this when I made this purchase.
Her: Let me check, let me see what I can do.

and here's the best part... she said "Now don't get upset."

I waited for OVER 20 MINUTES (I started timing it after about 5 minutes) while she thrashed it out in the back room with another woman, apparently the store manager. Finally my salesperson comes out and says they will make a HUGE exception this time - just this once, just for me.

I am silently steaming by this point.

The store manager marches to the counter without comment, and gives me the stink eye. I wait another 10 minutes while she punches away at the cash register to make it conform to their tricky credit card process. I am getting the cold silent treatment. Not once did she acknowledge my presence. She wants to make it perfectly clear what a bad, troublesome customer I am. 

Finally paperwork is produced and I see that they have charged me an additional $12 shipping for the replacement shams. On my previous order they offered to ship them to my house for a shipping charge, but I declined because shipping was free if I picked them up at the store. NOW it's $12 to pick them up at the store. 

OKaay then... they've apparently tacked on a $12 troublesome customer charge.

Soooooo petty. I will buy the rest of what I need somewhere else and I won't be troubling them again.