To me, it’s pretty clear that there is a huge gap in the type of service between industries. What is considered service in one industry, is certain death for future patronage in another one. After experiencing first hand what kind of service is normal, and understanding why, I can see how some folks silently retreat to other shops looking for the holy grail, or something different. Some just give up, and pick up another sport because they expect a certain type of service that they don’t get in this industry.

Again, I was shocked at first, but then after talking to people at the service center, where my fork is being looked after now, it appears that for products like this, this is the normal procedure, however, the shop can go outside of the box if they are able to. I just don’t think there was much empowerment to do so, but I didn’t feel like anyone didn’t make a genuine attempt to help me. I just feel that a more creative solution would have been warranted having been the victim of a likely defective as new product.

I guess the empowerment to do more comes from above. Hopefully the owners of that retail chain realize what a huge opportunity they have here to stand out from the crowd and offer that higher level service that is above the norm. There are so many retailers doing so many great things. All they have to do is look outside their market for a moment to pick up a few great ideas.

Again, I don’t feel like the shop wasn’t genuinely trying to help me. I just think that if they went above, or more creatively, although I’d still talk about the situation, my tune would have changed from…

“They did what they thought they were able to do for me…”

To…

“Holy crap! Those guys are fucking awesome! They totally felt for me, knew I only wanted what I paid for (a new working fork) and offered me something else right away that wouldn’t give me a problem, and I was on my way. They even got me to spend more money, but who cares. They took my problem away from me.”

I hope one day I’ll have that kind of story to tell.

Definitely I agree, anybody who sells any product (be it the 50 dollar blender or the million dollar software packages I sell) has an obligation to support the customer and remove the weight of any issues. Well, I guess not an obligation, but if a store wants to stand out from the crowd the management should make it an obligation. Maybe you need a new bike store…somebody out there will give you the proper level of customer service.

If that 52 inch plasma broke in a week, I would have replaced it. I would have sent a tech out to make sure that it was fixable, and that the customer had something watchable while I order a replacement, and I would have replaced it. In fact, in 2 cases, that I remember enough of, not plasma, customers had a problem with a certain “S” brand of LCD Projection Television. In both cases, they fried in some way, in the first 2 weeks or less.

Bottom line, in those two cases, I took care of the customers and NEVER made it their problem. I took the problem away, and gave them what they purchased: New Working TV’s. The other two TV’s, once back from repair, were sold without hassle, for a few dollars off, but the goodwill I built with these two customers, and the communication I fed to them during the repair, exchange, and follow up, made them come back and buy a hundreds of dollars in cabling in one case, and a home theatre system in another. I had them for life. They trusted that I would never stick them with a problem and that they would be taken care of.

As a result of how I altered the way I did things at the store, my staff had fewer fights with customers, and built better relationships. The stress level was non existant, and you know what, I stopped getting calls at home! Near the end of my “reign”, and after cleaning house, the store had record margins and the highest “M___” percentage in the lower mainland, and was second only to the yodelling Christians in Kelowna.

In my case, the product was a week old when it broke the first time, then 10 days old when it broke the second time. Although they did offer me a loaner, and at no point did I feel that they were not genuine in their service, no one thought OUTSIDE of the box. The scenario “Doing it Differently” above was never discussed or alluded to probably because that was “The Way it Is”.

My bottom line is that, if you think outside the box, and remember to NEVER make it a “Customers” problem, you will enjoy more, easier sales, and you won’t be stressing out everytime someone brings in a return. I taught the guys to see “Gold” when someone brought something back, because, the next time they come in, they will come to you if you take care of them correctly, or if the cards were played right, you might make a bigger sale right then and there.

So in closing:

“Sell Products. Not Problems!”

So what does this all mean from a service perspective? Well it doesn’t mean that you won’t get service. It means that you’ll get a different type of service. If there are only so many of this product made, the bike shop probably doesn’t have a collection of warranty replacements. This is not unusual for bigger ticket items; how many 52 inch top of the line plasma’s did you keep in stock at LD? When I worked there the number was usually 1. Maybe display plus one if it was a busy time of year, but usually just the display. Now, take it a step further; not only is it a big ticket item, it’s a big ticket niche market item. So as a big ticket mass market item you can get them a new one in a few days barring any stocking issues. As soon as it’s a niche item it becomes a “send back to depot” situation in a lot of cases.

Of course not ever company is the same; some will offer warranty replacements or loaners to their retail distributors…remember when you worked for the cell company and you had a loaner/replacement pool separate from your regular inventory? Not every manufacturer has the ability to provide those replacement parts tho. The smaller the niche, the less likely that a given manufacturer can provide loaners/replacements. When I worked in the music gear industry, if a Marshall amp had a problem, we had to send it back to Marshall. We did have a repair shop in house, but they couldn’t always repair a warranty issue instantly. If possible we would give the customer something to get by if they needed it, but again, it wasn’t always possible.

I guess I’m just saying that you can’t necessarily blame the manufacturer for not providing replacements; only for building shoddy product. If the store you’re dealing with is giving you bad support change stores, but don’t blame the manufacturer.

If I were you, I wouldn’t spend another dollar at that bike shop.