I recently purchased a Harley Benton guitar from Thomann USA. I was somewhat surprised when it shipped from Germany. That being said, it arrived faster than most of the orders that I have placed with state-side vendors. This is a story about customer service.
But, there was a problem … my volume knob wobbled. Now, these guitars are very inexpensive so I was not expecting perfection. There were some other minor issues that I was able to fix on my own, but this one needed to be addressed by my guitar tech. Actually, I quite like it … now.
It wasn’t a lot of money for the fix and I was going to let it slide. Still, I thought that the manufacturer should be aware of some issues with their quality control. Even a cheap guitar should not come out of the box with these problems. I decided to send them an email. Part of me wanted to see how they would respond.
I stressed that I was not asking for any sort of reimbursement or a replacement. They responded quickly and offered me a $50 credit regardless. This was based solely on my good word. I should have taken pictures. I didn’t. I should have asked for a receipt from my tech. I didn’t.
Well, guess what? They have earned a repeat customer. I’m fact, I will be more inclined to purchase from them again than if the guitar had arrived in perfect condition. Why? Because I know that they take care of business and they will stand behind what they sell.
Conversely, and I am going to call these people out by name, Roku and Xvive will not be seeing anymore of my dollars. It took me 2 months with Roku to get my refund, 2 weeks for them to respond even initially, and then I had to file a claim with PayPal. Xvive has still not responded and it has been 3 weeks. With Xvive, all I want to know is if it can be fixed or if I can buy a receiver unit only. The transmitter still works.
I remember the first deal that I did with a state bank that was wanting to expand rapidly. We were going to build the signs for a new branch and install sandblasted marble signs that would be shipped to us. We broke these marble signs during transport to the job site. All of them. Tip! Transport marble signs on edge vs. lying down on the trailer. What now?
We built replacements. In fact, they looked better than the originals! We could also provide them to the bank at a lower cost than their existing provider and we could now provide sign packages end-to-end. Lemons became lemonade. Many more branches followed. Competitors did not. They now knew that we backed what we sold and even what we did not!
I also recall when I used to work for a copier dealer in the 80’s. They had a policy, and I can’t remember the exact details, that if you were under a maintenance agreement and we did not respond in under 4 hours, you would receive a $25 credit.
I love the History Channel (The Food that Built America) and this is not unlike the policy that turned Dominos Pizza around when they were on the verge of bankruptcy … 30 minutes or it is free. Game changer!
Here’s the kicker. This copier company would occasionally arrive in 4 hours and 15 minutes, on purpose, just so that they could show that they were serious about their commitment. At first, I scratched my head. Later I figured it out. Brilliant!
The simple fact is that, if you respond quickly, and complete the correction in a timely and appropriate manner, no whining and excuses … you will become the golden child in the eyes of your customers.
Craig M. Jamieson
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