An interesting lesson in service

I’m a business owner (and as surely as the day is long, I’m not perfect at it), but I’m also a consumer. Everywhere I go I find that I’m strangely vigilant about the business. I look for those subtle things. I analyze what I like and don’t like about the location, the service, even those little small nuances that make the business what it is.

I like eating at Cora’s. Excellent food, always fresh, pleasant staff and a bright and cheery atmosphere. I look at the placemats. Rather than a few stock pictures and a price list, I’m met with a smiling face and a bunch of interesting tidbits that I rather enjoy reading while I’m waiting for my food to arrive. I even brought a couple home with me so I could read them again.

I guess what I’m saying is that I always make mental notes about what I like and don’t like, then strive to incorporate the stuff I do like into my own business. That mentality of “treating others the way you want to be treated” strikes time and time again…hopefully to the benefit of our clients.

I bought a bed from a local company. I suppose I could have bought it from Sleep Country, but I didn’t simply because the “sale to beat all sales” every week grows weary after a while and it made me doubt their credibility. Instead I decided to go for another, smaller chain. I like the bed and everything, but I was very dismayed by how it was handled. They gave me a great price, I paid and left, thinking I’d have it in a couple of weeks as it was special ordered. I had no problems waiting as long as I was given the heads up.

Well, the promised date came and went, with no bed. Two more weeks passed and still no bed. A call to the store informed me that there’d been a mistake and I’d have it in a couple of days. I was disappointed, sure, but these things happen. A week came and went. Finally I got a call that my bed had arrived and while setting a date for delivery I was informed I owed money. That’s odd, I thought. I paid for it in full at time of ordering. The lady said she’d look into it and call me back. When she did, I found out that I owed $3.80 for HST on the delivery because they were delivering it on July 2, one day after the HST kicked in.

There’s a point to this story, honestly. The point is this. It was a real kick in the pants to be told I owed $4.00 when the delay was their own doing. It’s not even the $4.00, it’s the concept of the thing that was utterly dismaying. I made a note to myself. I would never make a client pay for my mistakes and I would never nickel and dime them to death either. If I quote a price, I’m going to live up to it, whether it’s $4.00 or $100. I won’t forget how I felt… and I’ll certainly endeavor not to let my clients feel the same way.

It’s not always the big things that make our experience a positive one, something that makes us want to return time and again. Sometimes it’s as simple as a couple of toonies.

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