I've been toying around with the idea about a blog entry on customer service, and never really had much time. There are just not enough hours in the day for everything that I want to do. I do get time to put my thoughts down on Twitter or Facebook in between customers or projects.
After some recent issues with Time Warner Cable and reading complaints about local yarn shops on Ravelry, I felt that it's long overdue.
I always joke that I attended the "Everton Martin School of Business" before any other schooling I received. That is due to the fact that I used to watch my father talk with people whenever he had a problem with that company's customer service. In fact, our family was well known because my father always put up a big stink if things were not just as they should be.
If people knew we were there, we always got perfect treatment, as though staff were scared of my father. It even happened when I had to call the fire department out to the house when we had a gas leak after I graduated college.
But why do we have to yell, talk to management, or even put up any kind of stink to get good service? Isn't the point to keep your customers happy so they keep coming back?! When I sit on hold for 30 minutes and the muzak cuts to an automated voice that tells me my call is important, I ask myself every time, "Is it really? Then why have I been on hold for 30 minutes?" Because the last thing I need to do, especially when I have a 3 year-old and customers, is sit on the phone on hold for 30 minutes to wait for you to not help me at all!
This is usually why I apologize for Vincent people a little hyper in the shop, or for just about everything. I value the people that come into the shop, appreciate their input, and most importantly when they come back. And that's my rant in a nutshell.
More yarn will be coming in soon, including items that I've hand dyed or hand spun. Stay tuned for updates! :)
