DOUBLE WHAMMY---IN A GOOD WAY

PART 1

Last night, I picked up the phone and didn’t get a dial tone. It was about 8 PM, and I had much to do today and no time to go through the process of finding technical assistance. What did I do? While i should probably have called a Verizon repair line from a cell phone, having been there in the past, I had found that it wasn’t an efficient way to get help. It’s been a while, so, to be fair, things may be fine now. But I had a better idea. I had been dealing with an excellent Verizon Sales supervisor to figure out the best Verizon FIOS package for our needs. I had her email address and thought that I could contact her, and she would probably refer the issue to the appropriate area when she came in the next day.

I was wrong—in a good way. Verizon has their Sales group on staggered schedules, so that at 8 PM, she responded, not tomorrow as I had anticipated, but within five minutes. As I was reading her email, her associate called Howard’s cell phone and connected him to a technician who worked with Howard to fix the problem. Fifteen minutes later, we were good to go. (I'm so lucky to have Howard---for so many reasons. This time, he handled the guy/technical stuff. But, he was impressed with his wife-the 5 minute response may be a record. We are a dynamic duo!)  

Feeling that I should cover all bases, I had copied my email to Sales to a contact in the technical area. At least I thought that she was the right contact, but had trouble reading my escalation contact notes. I got lucky. She was the right contact. This morning, I had an email from her, saying that she would troubleshoot the issue to find out why it occurred so that we could hopefully avoid problems in the future.

Excellent service, Verizon!

What did I do wrong?

1) To be fair and to avoid overextending my welcome with escalated resources, I probably should have given the normal repair line a chance. 

2) I should be neater and keep better records. I was able to locate the Technical contact, but it took a little time to decipher my hieroglyphics. 

What did I do right?

1) I realized that a good contact in one area of a corporation can be a resource to locate  appropriate contacts in another area. 

2) I assessed my contact well. I knew that she was responsive and customer friendly based on my prior dealings with her. With this persona, I knew that she wouldn’t mind my reaching out to her for help. And I knew that she is smart enough to know that good customer service means thinking outside of her area in order to meet customer needs. A well served customer is a happy customer.

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Now, a step back in time. Land lines. They’re disappearing. I don’t know anyone under age 35 who has one. Cell phones have taken over our lives in too many ways. I know—I’m challenged and barely know how to use mine. But I also remember a gentler time when people had land lines, and that land lines can add a level of civility to our lives. People actually spoke with each other to catch up with family and friends, not just to communicate in sound bites. You could dial a home number and catch up with a whole family—anyone in the family might answer the phone. I remember when I was little, and we had only a single extension. It was located in an alcove near my room. If I sat inconspicuously in the right spot, I could hear stories, gossip—all kinds of things that weren’t meant for my little ears. Very entertaining and enlightening, even if I was only hearing one side of a conversation. I could usually imagine the rest. And the role of phones in movies—Hitchcock’s great Dial M for Murder. There was drama in picking up a receiver. Cell phones are so…prosaic, uninteresting...And, as Howard pointed out, Text M for Murder doesn't have the same impact. So, think about keeping a land line. It’s much more civilized to sit on a sofa and engage with friends and family than it is to walk down the street looking like you’re talking to yourself when you’re just talking to someone on the fly.

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PART 2

Why did I need the phone last night? I saw an email from Gap, promoting items added to their sale. Remember my last Gap dress story? Well, the dress that I bought and didn’t return was on deep discount. I had only received it about 8 days earlier. Price match time! When I called Gap to ask for a price match, the associate didn’t hesitate. She agreed to credit my account for the difference. After I hung up, I realized that the $26 credit seemed too much. I called back to make sure that I wasn’t taking undue advantage. The associate saw that, yes, I had been given too high a credit. However, he said that he would leave the credit as it was. When I told him that it wasn’t my intention to take Gap to the cleaner’s, he said that it was their system calculation and their bad, so I shouldn’t worry about it. 

What’s right in this situation?

1) Although I get way too many Gap emails, it was a good idea to look at this one, marked as having new items on sale. You never know if there are items you’ve browsed that are now on sale or if an item that you ordered is more discounted. With the short window of time between order arrival and reduced price, it was reasonable to ask for a price match. 

2) Gap didn’t hem and haw; they saw the logic and made the adjustment.

3) Gap graciously took responsibility for their error, though I would have gladly agreed to the correct but lower adjustment.

4) On Gap’s post-call survey, one of the questions asks whether the representative told the customer what they could do, rather than what they couldn’t do. That’s a great question and a major point of excellence in customer service. Nice that Gap recognizes that. I wish that more businesses did.

All in all, a great evening of great customer service!

P.S. Although they are the mother lode for customer service stories, I promise that this is the last Gap story!