My wife and I recently made a large purchase from Sears Appliances. The sales process went quite well as the sales lady we worked with was on the ball, went out of her way to help us find the exact appliances we wanted, alerted us to an up-coming special promotion that would save us some additional money, and did a great job of working out the details of the sale, and holding the items until we were ready for delivery.
It's their delivery department where Sears made the experience a big pain in the neck...(and other parts of my anatomy as well.) About a week before the scheduled delivery date I called Sears to learn what time of day to expect them. We didn't care what part of the day, just a general estimate so that we could arrange to have someone at home when they came.
That was when the fun began. I was told that they would call the evening before with a time for delivery. I explained that calling that late would not help me as I had to schedule my business day and needed to know several days in advance. Again,. I was told "We will call you the evening before." I kept explaining about my particular predicament and no matter what I said I was told "We will call you the evening before." I asked to speak to someone who could make it happen to my satisfaction. I was told there was no one else.
I was not about to give up. After extensive digging on the internet I found a phone number for Sears corporate...(they sure do make it hard for you to find the home office phone numbers.) I called corporate, asked for customer service, and eventually was connected to someone who had some authority in the home delivery department. After explaining my situation, he at least let me put in a request for a particular time of day. He said he couldn't guarantee it but they would make their best effort. That was good enough for me.
I don't understand why businesses who make their money serving the public can't make a small effort to help a customer. Customer service in so many large companies is more of an "act" than reality. If it wasn't for the great job the original salesperson had done for us, I would have given serious consideration to canceling the order. There is nothing worse than working hard to make a sale, and then have someone else in the company disappoint the customer. That's not a great way to build a business.
If you liked this article and want more of Don's sage marketing advice visit his website at http://www.streetsmartselling.com or e-mail Don directly at don@streetsmartselling.com
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