Monday, April 26, 2010

A powerful question to ask when you have received lousy customer service

You know that old expression “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”? Well, it turns out that’s a pretty good motto at work and in life in general. Case in point: A couple weeks ago, I was told by my Hyundai car dealer’s service department that I needed a new air bag (my air bag light had gone on, indicating a problem). And my car was 3,000 miles outside its 60,000 mile warranty. The cost to replace the air bag? $1,200. Ouch! I mentioned to them that I had taken my car in for this same air bag light problem nine months before, when the car was still within warranty. I was really annoyed that they had clearly not solved the problem the first time, and as a result, now I had to bring the car back in again and shell out $1,200 for something that should have been fixed in the first place while the car was still covered by the warranty. “I’m sorry. There is nothing we can do” was the response. It was outside of warranty, which meant that Hyundai corporate would not reimburse the dealership for the repair cost.

I was frustrated but not defeated. My car was outside of warranty. So I asked for a phone number of the car manufacturer’s “Consumer Relations” division. The next day, I was on the phone with a nice young person in Hyundai USA’s Consumer Affairs division and explained the situation. I was polite, friendly, and was determined not to come off as a belligerent, demanding hot head. After I calmly explained the entire situation, I asked the customer service rep a simple question: “If this had happened to you, what would you do?” And then I shut up.

After what was an uncomfortably long silence, she responded by saying, “to be honest, I would probably do just what you’re doing today. I would ask for this to be reviewed.” She told me that she was just the person who collects the information and she had no power to make a determination as to whether Hyundai might cover the cost of this repair or not. It turns out they – like most car companies – have some discretion to offer to waive repair costs under something they call a “Goodwill” policy. In other words, they can bend the rules in the interest of good will with their customer if the circumstances indicate it would maintain an important customer relationship.

I told the customer service rep that I realized that she could not make the decision but that I was very appreciative of her listening to my concern and that up until now I had been extremely happy with my experience with my car and with the Hyundai dealership in question. Five days later, I received a call back from her telling me that my request to have the fee waived for the air bag repair had been approved

Several months ago, I had experienced a long-running, very upsetting saga with a furniture company (La-Z-Boy to be precise). I had purchased two couches and two side tables from a local La-Z-Boy retailer (an independent franchisee, I should add). I made the purchase because of a compelling sales promotion they were running: Purchase X amount of furniture and receive a $500 gas card for free gas. Turns out the promotion had more red tape than FEMA. The marketing company behind the gas card promotion was a company out of Florida that had been sued by several other retailers and even some states attorneys general for fraud. During the course of this promotion, that gas card company went bankrupt. I never received my $500 gas card. The local La-Z-Boy store’s customer service manager apologized profusely but said there was nothing they could do since the gas card was not something from La-Z-Boy but rather this separate (now bankrupt) marketing company.

The local La-Z-Boy store claimed they were as much a victim as I was. Not quite. I was able to get in touch with a senior level executive at La-Z-Boy corporate at their headquarters in Monroe, Michigan and explained my ten-month long saga. I made a point not to display any anger or make demands. I simply calmly and without emotion explained my customer experience and then asked the executive, “If you were in my shoes, what would you do?” The executive responded that she deeply appreciated that I did not shout and scream and make outrageous demands. She appreciated my calm, level-headed approach to explaining my situation and she confessed embarrassment over how poorly the store had handled my situation. Two weeks later, she informed me that I would receive a $500 gift card from La-Z-Boy good at any La-Z-Boy store – no expiration date, no strings attached. One week after that, the card arrived.

It can be so tempting when you’ve had a horrible customer service experience to raise your voice, stomp you foot and tell the manager on duty in no uncertain terms “I’m not going to take this!” And maybe you might come out victorious. More likely, you will just tick them off, cause them to dig in their heels and you will storm out angrier than you were to begin with. Perhaps, next time, consider approaching the situation from a calm, reasonable-sounding, diplomatic perspective. You just might be surprised by the outcome.

Posted by Tim Jones at 12:27 pm

Labels: communication practices  success factors  

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