What do you do when you encounter exceptional customer service?
    15 years
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Do you call it out?
Yesterday, I saw an associate at Costco, so I shouted out, "Hey Derrick! I remember you from 2020!"
He turned around.
I stated, "You're the best employee Costco has!"
Why? In April 2020 when the pandemic was raging, I had a big mess with a tire order, which I won't go into. Long story short, we all know that many large entities, like Costco, do not do exchanges. They refund/cancel, and one buys again.
I get this is straightforward and prevents fraud and errors. Like when handling money. Money handlers are trained to give you your monies back, if you are trying to swindle them by altering the transaction in flight.
So net net is I lost the $140 "promo" on a set of tires. I had not had them installed yet, so I said let's go Michelin instead of Bridgestone. I went round and round with the manager, look, my invoice is now $140 higher, I lost the promo (later I did see a mgr override they never told me about on the original order), and he insisted it's right. Disadvantage for me? I handed the paperwork back and now it's gone. Why....tires not in stock had to be ordered...so I noticed the price was higher after I had gone into the store to shop, and had given up my original paperwork.
This associate saw what's going on, explained it to the manager, AND HE STOOD IN LINE WITH ME AT THE SERVICE DESK. He told the lady whom he was obviously on good terms with, to "give him $140 credit." She said why? And he said just do it! jokingly
So I got the credit and was happy.
These types of associates should be cloned--that would drive Costco's revenue to over 1 trillion.
The end. But it was a pleasure to see him yesterday on my day off.
When Possible
I leave a glowing online review when I have the opportunity.
I will leave a review
When I get great customer service, I will leave a review or mention the person to management. For instance, a couple of years ago, we were on vacation in Utah. We were in a little town called Beaver and we were directed by the desk clerk at the motel where we were staying to this particular restaurant. There were only a couple in this town and we were told that it was the best place to eat. We went there and were blessed to have this wonderful server. I believe that she was 18 and we found out that she was working two jobs. She was exceptional and we left a review on TripAdvisor and called her out by name. The owner of the restaurant responded and thanked me for mentioning her name and they would be passing on the praises to her.
With God, all things are possible. ——State motto of the Great State of Ohio
I once got
exceptional service at Best Buy (rarely use them). Maybe this is no surprise, I tried to use the website to leave a positive review, and it failed. That told me the establishment doesn't care. If they did, then they would know their web page wasn't working for comments of any nature. This was a long time ago maybe 2011.
Exceptional people will always be sought after, but I have a secret theory about it. Often they are so good at what they do, management keeps them there because they are impossible to replace. This makes exceptional customer service even more rare.
What I'm saying is Derrick should be the manager of the Costco where he works and then promoted into the region, but instead, he's still where he was in 2020. That's good for us customers, but maybe for him personally he could shine even more at a new role.
IMO, two types of customer service individuals
“Deeds not words” and the reverse “Words not deeds”.
Unfortunately these days, all too often the “words not deeds” type gravitate to web based help, chat sessions, emails, etc. They work from home and get paid based on quantity of responses.
In contrast the in-store help are the “deeds not words” type. They aren’t always great, and the best of the bunch tend to move upward into management. As an example, a former neighbor used to be a floor guy at Best Buy and over time moved up the ranks and now heads a division that sells and installs high end stereo systems.
John from PA
Bad service by design
“Deeds not words” and the reverse “Words not deeds”.
Unfortunately these days, all too often the “words not deeds” type gravitate to web based help, chat sessions, emails, etc. They work from home and get paid based on quantity of responses.
In contrast the in-store help are the “deeds not words” type. They aren’t always great, and the best of the bunch tend to move upward into management. As an example, a former neighbor used to be a floor guy at Best Buy and over time moved up the ranks and now heads a division that sells and installs high end stereo systems.
Yes,,, the Peter Principle at work some of the time. JIC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
In the first decade of the century one of my babies had a friend doing sales at Best Buy. He was required to try to sell insurance seven times per customer engagement. He was told that store employed "shoppers" who would count. Bad service by design.
My son worked in Best Buy.
He was a floor guy in the computer dept. He was great at what he did. He moved to after hours (24 hour) support from home. They rated them on quality initially and, again, he was great at it. He even took on jobs that were assigned to him that other techs couldn't resolve. The quality went to quantity and his numbers went because he was finishing others jobs. He had enough so he moved on.
Nuvi 2460LMT.
respectfully not in agreement
“Deeds not words” and the reverse “Words not deeds”.
Unfortunately these days, all too often the “words not deeds” type gravitate to web based help, chat sessions, emails, etc. They work from home and get paid based on quantity of responses.
In contrast the in-store help are the “deeds not words” type. They aren’t always great, and the best of the bunch tend to move upward into management. As an example, a former neighbor used to be a floor guy at Best Buy and over time moved up the ranks and now heads a division that sells and installs high end stereo systems.
Interesting how we fundamentally disagree. It has not been my experience where the "best of the bunch" move upward into management.
This has been my experience, and why it's funny:
https://9gag.com/gag/av5MRKE
Great customer servide
Whenever I have great customer service, I look for a way to leave a positive comment and have, on occasion, called the company to let the know how pleased I was with the person, by name.
I have found Google reviews and sometimes Yelp to be a good method for leaving written reviews.
rvOutrider
Write to the Company
On several occasions I have written to the company and commended employees who were exemplary. I have actually been called back by companies and been thanked for my input and assured that the direct supervisors of the employees would receive a copy of my correspondence.
GPSMAP 76CSx - nüvi 760 - nüvi 200 - GPSMAP 78S
So far in the past when getting exceptional service I have ...
... sent letters to the corporate office, sent e mails to same, left a very positive review on Yelp, and asked to speak with a manager.
Nowadays with social media playing such a big part in just about everything it seems that the Yelp review is the one most appreciated. I last left a special thank you on Yelp in regards to an employee at a restaurant just a couple of weeks ago. They saw my review and gave me a nice thank you back.