Mastering Customer Service

by Philip M. Anderson
This will be a customer service blog post that I will enjoy writing because it involves customer service to the core.  Most companies never even have the opportunity to fix a problem when it arises because most customers just flat out don’t care to take the time to go through the process.  The result is, customers are unhappy (thus passing their negative experience on to anybody who will listen) and companies are unhappy because they were never given the opportunity to make it better.  Is it fair?  No.  But the reality is, that is what typically happens.
So what happens when the company IS given the opportunity to fix a problem?  Here is a little story that will shed a lot about customer service.
As you know I have been in the customer service industry my entire career.  I don’t claim to know everything but I feel I have a very good grasp of what it takes to serve people correctly.  Today I had a situation arise that shows the polar opposites of customer service.
As you may or may not know I represent a product, right now, that I feel is the absolute best product on the market in it’s industry, Filter Queen, manufactured by Health Mor, Inc.  They manufacture and sell a very good air filter and an amazing high filtration surface cleaner (which many people still insist on calling a vacuum cleaner).  Having owned and operated a cleaning company for over a decade I feel I am uniquely qualified to have an expert opinion on what makes a good cleaning system, having used so many cleaning appliances over the years.
This system costs just under $3,000–not chump change, to be sure.  What the consumer gets is a very well made cleaning system that actually helps people to live a healthier life because they live in a cleaner home.  Typical vacuums that people purchase, at the rate of 700,000 per month in this country (which means their old vacuums go right in to the landfills) actually blow dirt through the filter (or bag) while they are being used to CLEAN.  I guess that’s what we call cleaning in this country!  Then, rather quickly, the filter or bag gets clogged and that’s when the cleaning power of the vacuum is substantially reduced.
With the Filter Queen Majestic, you never lose air flow (cleaning power) because of the patented cyclonic action engineering which is activated by a motor that runs at 30,400 R.P.M. on high speed, plus the filter system filters down to .1 microns, which is the lowest on the market.  Now, to add to this, the Majestic is built to last.  Having compared the many vacuums I have seen recently and purchased in the past to the Majestic I am continually amazed at the quality of this product.  The Defender, which is the air filter, also filters down to .1 microns yet uses no more than .9 amps (on the highest speed).  Very efficient.  Health Mor, Inc has been around since 1928 and it’s no wonder why they are still in business:  They make a great product!
With these two products working in tandem households can virtually get all of the filth OUT of their homes, something most, if not all, vacuums cannot do.  Because of the enherint flaw of their design, they have not got the capabilities to remove all of the dirt and filth out of homes.
Here is what happened this morning, understanding that I am not stating this as fact, only what I’ve been told.
As I arrived at an appointment, knowing the household already owned an older Filter Queen, I said, “I understand you folks have a Filter Queen already.”  The man (I’ll call him Harry) responded, “Yes, we do, and it’s the biggest hunk of junk we’ve ever bought!”  Hmmmm, well, that’s not at all the response I’d expected, to say the least.
I came to find out they have owned the system for eight years and have had problem after problem with the customer service department of Health Mor, Inc, the company that makes Filter Queen.  The air filter they had purchased never worked correctly, from day one, but the company didn’t replace the product!  They finally sold it to a friend who realized that, apparently, the wires had been crossed at the factory.  He fixed that problem and now it works fine.  But the damage had already been done as far as this couple was concerned.
Now, at this point, I am embarassed and a bit bewildered that the company that makes these fairly expensive products that I represent would act this way. I am getting verbally assalted by this couple because of eight years of buildup.  The wife (I’ll call her Melissa) is really in a lather over this.
Let’s review:  A customer that dropped nearly $3,000 eight years ago on a cleaning system and has yet to get good customer service to fix a problem that should have never existed.  What should I do?
Well, first of all, this is, by no stretch of the imagination, MY problem.  But I did take ownership (knowing, full well, I am not getting paid to spend my time and energy to try and fix this problem).  I listened to Melissa complain about how she is STILL waiting to hear back from the company since she was told she would be called back in October, 2009.  There is NO authorized dealer to maintain this cleaner in the near vicinity so she was told she has to MAIL it at HER cost to a dealer 400 miles away (about $130 each way).  She is spending WAY too much on filter cones for the Majestic and it doesn’t even come with the EXPENSIVE (medi-pure) filter.  And there was more as her anger increased.
I just listened.
I came to find out they both actually LIKE using the Majestic.  It’s easy to use.  It picks up dirt like no other vacuum they’ve had.  AND, it doesn’t blow out dirt, which is extremely important since she has asthma.  She just doesn’t appreciate spending that much money and being forgotten.
After she was through explaining, I asked her if she felt a little better, after venting like that, and she said, “Yes, thank you.  I’ve told so many people about this, on the phone, but NOBODY seems to care!”
I explained to them that this is NOT what I believed to be true about the companies customer service and that I apologized that they have experienced what they had.  I also explained that I had no idea if I could help.  BUT, I would try.
And try I did.
It took me about 20 minutes of persistance with the first customer service representative to be connected to the customer service supervisor, Kim, at Health Mor, Inc, (HMI) and she listened to me recant the half hour of verbal abuse I had just withstood with the customer.  I then told Kim she had an opportunity to make a very dissatisfied and angry customer happy again.  I then handed the phone to Melissa who spent about 15 minutes talking with Kim.  There was no immediate resolution but the action had been started.  At the end of the conversation Melissa wasn’t any happier than at the beginning.  Kim didn’t say anything that would help.  I got back on the phone and asked Kim, “Between you and I, Kim, will you please see this through and do whatever you can to make Melissa happy again?”  She said yes.
This story isn’t so much that HMI did poorly and I did well in the grand scheme of customer service.  Just that it amazes me that something so easy to fix isn’t.
I know I am on the front lines, going INTO peoples’ homes and seeing first hand what their trigger points are.  Until today, I had NEVER talked with anybody who had experienced Filter Queen, who wasn’t completely satisfied and enamored with the product.  Even today, they admitted they were happy with the product (not the air filter, which they didn’t even own anymore), just not the customer service.
What large companies seem to think is that it’s ok to lose a percentage of customers because of, whatever, you name it.  They’ll just get them back later and then sell MORE NEW EQUIPMENT!  Do they not understand it costs most of these companies more money to regain customers as it does to keep them?
Nordstrom has created a reputation with their culture of taking back virtually everything, even if you didn’t purchase it at their store!  Talk to ANYbody in business and they’ll tell you that is just flat out, bad business.
What these people fail to realize is that, while, yes, Nordstom pays out millions of dollars every year in refunds, including a percentage of refunds to people that didn’t even purchase the returned item at Nordstom, they more than make up for it because of INCREASED SALES DIRECTLY LINKED TO THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE THAT IS SECOND TO NONE!

I am hoping that HMI will see that this customer can be an ally instead of an adversary, with the right approach.  On the other side of the coin, not to toot my own horn, but I took ownership in a situation even though I had no part in this customers hostile spirit toward Filter Queen.  It needs to be written, as well, that this is a report of what was said this particular day and is not written as fact.  I’m merely writing this as an example of what might have been done in this situation to ease the customer frustration, at a minimal cost.

Thank you for reading, and, until next time, always expect great customer service.  Unless you’re IN the industry…then, give it!

aphilip369@aol.com