Super Fantastic Service!
by Stan on July 13, 2009
in News, inspiration
I have been in customer service and sales and marketing all my life – starting as a phone rep at Kodak all the way up to my current job in sales and marketing at a photo lab. So I am particularly attuned to good and bad customer service. And I have to tell you about GREAT service I received today – especially since I had to return the product!
You might have noticed Jenn and I have been kind of quiet here at Scrappers Workshop. Yeah, we’ve been on vacation (with dial-up access!) but we have also been deeply involved in a complete redesign of scrappersworkshop.com. We are incorporating a cleaner design, easier access to our classes, an affiliate program to earn you some cash, and opportunities for free or paid sponsorships. So I’ve been searching for the ‘perfect” starting template. My search led me to solostream.com – a great WordPress theme and web design company. Their “10 Things We Care About” should have clued me in I was dealing with a great company.
So I looked their themes over, looked at the tutorials, and made a purchase. Downloaded the theme, installed it and with great anticipation of this fabulous new design, started work.
Oh, no.
That’s not what I want.
No, that’s not how I want it to work.
Agh! What’s going on! Three Red Bulls and ten cups of coffee and multiple messages back and forth in the support forum AND IT’S NOT WORKING!
And their tech support really tried. I think it was me not understanding what the design did and not having a clear picture in my mind of what I wanted. So I purchased the theme about a month ago. And it’s a digital download. We all know from digiscrapping that downloadable products are no return – you download it, you own it. And rightfully so – how can they verify I deleted those products and won’t use them. But the theme was almost $80 so I figured I’d try. I was geared up for a huge email fight back and forth about why they should give me a refund, blah, blah, blah.
I’m glad I’m dealing with an owner like Mike who runs his company with such integrity and customer care. Within minutes (well maybe a hour) I got an email back saying your PayPal account has been credited.
Huh. No fight? No lengthy emails back and forth? No threatening to do a chargeback / report them to the BBB / ruin their reputation on our blog?
Nope. Customer service done right. A quick, no question refund for what was clearly my fault.
And I like that.
So if you are looking for a new blog or website design, look to Mike and his team at solostream.com. We will.
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That’s awesome! And kudos to you for pointing out good service. A lot of people are quick to criticize, but don’t praise enough when it comes to good service. I know I need to be better at it, and I do try, because I really appreciate it when it happens. Sad that less than good services seems to be the norm.
barb´s last blog ..Be Nice to Nerds, You’ll Work for One Someday
In this day and age, with companies failing left and right, customer service plays a crucial role.
Anytime I receive good customer service, I try to notify the appropriate supervisors and sometimes I’ll even blog about the company.
Bad customer service is a HUGE pet peeve of mine and I will TOTALLY rip a company a new one on my blog if/when I experience it – I literally cannot stomach bad service.
Creative Junkie´s last blog ..Are you allowed to issue an Amber Alert for your waist?
Stan, thanks for giving us the chance to help you with your project. We also really appreciate the note. One final thought: it’s really a lot easier if customers and vendors treat each other fairly within a relationship of respect. In your case, everyone’s best efforts could not solve the problem. But it was very easy to treat you like we would like to be treated by others.
Mike Durkin´s last blog ..WordPress Theme – WP-Prolific 1.0
As a former customer service supervisor myself, I was astonished at the service we received from Mike and the gang.
In the digiscrap world, I’ve heard the good and the bad, but in my personal experience designers and stores will usually bend over backwards to help you when your request is reasonable and legitimate. Yet I frequently hear people complain about a product without having tried to contact the designer! Sometimes it really pays to ask. Sure payed for us – Thanks Mike!
Great story! I can’t wait to see the new design.
Jennifer´s last blog ..Scrap Simple #3
That is so cool of them to do that, That is GCS for sure!!!
Hope to see the new skins soon
Mary´s last blog ..
Wow… great to see such wonderful customer service. Seems rare these days!
Zanne´s last blog ..Colours of Joy Layout