Customer service story

Today’s competitive markets it is very difficult to compete with only good products. There is always some other company that produces almost the same product as you so you really have to make a difference with customer service. Well executed customer service is the key to success these days because a happy customer equals money for the company. Even if that a customer wouldn’t buy a lot from the company he could still recommend their services to others if he had a pleasant customer experience. When a company does appreciate its customers and treats them well it usually improves the image of the company and that way attracts more paying customers. On the other hand one bad experience can overcome many good ones which means that companies can’t afford bad customer experiences.

Here is one example of my own customer experiences. This was little more on the negative side but it eventually ended happily.

It all started when my phone started playing tricks on me earlier this year. I started searching for information about new phones on the market and I actually spent roughly a month doing that which is weird I know. After reading all those phone reviews and watching countless videos on that subject I was pretty sure what phone I was going to buy. After I made the decision about which phone to buy I started looking for good deals from online. I picked out a store that had the lowest price and headed there the very next day.

So there I was at the store and the first thing I noticed was that the price was about 60 euros higher that it was supposed to be. It was disappointing to see that because I wasn’t willing to spend that much money on a cell phone. At that time the salesperson came to me and asked if I wanted help with something. I explained the situation about the price and he said that they have different prices than the website. He didn’t want to give me the phone at that lower price so I was ready to go home disappointed.

As I was walking away he quickly changed his mind and said that the price is no issue. It was a nice surprise that he was willing to give the discount after all. But when I came back he gave me a sales pitch about this other phone that he though was much better than the phone I wanted. It felt really odd because he had a customer who was ready to buy a phone and he didn’t want to sell it. It took some time to convince him that I really do know what I want and it’s not the phone he recommended. Finally he listened to me and agreed to sell me the right phone. Then he focused on extra sales and he was eager to sell me anything he could. He wanted to sell every accessory that they had for example screen protectors, cases, extra warranty and so on. I only bought screen protectors but he was very stubborn and he basically told me I was crazy for not having that extra warranty which was very expensive. Luckily for me he didn’t have anything else to sell me so I purchased my new phone and screen protectors and left the store.

This was not the best customer experience that I have ever had but in the end I walked out of there with the phone that I wanted in the first place. Some sales persons can be like that and you have to stand behind your own decisions or else you are going to buy something that you don’t want and need. It was a good lesson for me and nowadays I never buy anything without doing some research by myself.