Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:54
We're famous for our cold winters up here in Minnesota. Despite the cold weather, we don't stay holed up in our houses all winter. I love ice fishing. To the uninitiated, ice fishing consists of using a very large hand-cranked auger (or a gas powered one when you can afford it) to bore a hole through the ice, and the rest is pretty easy to figure out. This winter I stepped up my ice fishing game by purchasing a sophisticated electronic fish locator. Due to an unfortunate story involving my fish locator and a powered ice auger, I had seriously damaged the locator to the point where I thought I’d have to buy a replacement. I was pretty peeved because this locator was only a few weeks old. Was I ever surprised when I contacted the manufacturer.
I'm lucky enough to live near the factory, so I drove over to see what they could do for me. When I arrived at the customer service desk one of the two guys behind the counter asked to take a look a the unit and if I had about 10 minutes and then disappeared behind a door. While he was back in the service department the other representative asked if I had downloaded the latest software update for the locator. When I told him “no”, he said he would do that before I left.
A couple of minutes later the first rep came back with the locator and said, “It’s ready to go”! I was shocked he got it fixed so quickly. I was afraid I was going to have to wait for a few weeks while they ordered parts. The second representative who had downloaded the new software update onto my system took time to show me how the updates made my locator work better than it did when it was brand new. This was turning out to be a great customer service experience, but I'm not finished.
I asked how much I owed for the repair and the first rep pointed out a slight flaw in the front of the screen. “if you would have bought this back because of this defect we would have replaced the screen at no charge. Even though you accidently damaged it, we are going to replace it at no charge!” I was thrilled. Both of these guys did a great job and went way above my expectations.
If you are ever in the market for a fish locator, I highly recommend a Marcum. I love my LX-7, I've learned to keep it away from the ice auger. More importantly, I learned the company not only has a great product, but they also give excellent customer service.
Have you ever experienced exceptional customer service? How did it make you feel? What did it inspire you to do?
Imagine one of your clients raving to their closest 2,500 friends about a great customer experience with you.
What can you start doing today to make this happen?
