Happy Stories of Customer Service

[trampledamage]

Just to show the rest of the forum that we're not completely humourless whingers and to lower our own blood pressure a bit, I thought we could do with a happy stories of customer service thread!

My happiest story is the time when I was working the customer enquiries desk down by the science fiction department and an elderly gentleman came up. I forget was his original question was but he commented that he never got to see his own books in British stores any more. "I'm James White" he said. Cue open-mouthed flabbergastedness from me and the rather unhelpful response of "What? The James White?"

Yep, I got to meet the author of the Sector General stories - which were the first sci-fi stories I ever read. I was so star-struck

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I was working a checkout lane one morning (as I am wont to do ). I am approached by several jovial nurse-type ladies. After they pay me and prepare to leave, they comment most appreciatively (and somewhat 'saucily', if you take my meaning) on my bald head.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

Working at Disneyland, we are there for guests. There was this one particular story that i will never forget. There was a lady that walked into one of the stores looking for a particular jacket. That store didn't have it. I told her as such and also told her that i will call around to see what other stores do have it. I must have called half the stores in the whole damn resort but i finally found a place that had it. I asked them if they would hold if for her, gave them the guest's name, said they would. So i came back out, told her where it was and that they would hold it for her. So she left, got the jacket, and was happy. It took a while, but it's my job and so long as she left happy, i was happy.

 

[Lookingglassman]

About the only happy customer service stories I have is when I was a welfare worker I got to meet a ton of hot chicks on welfare. Some were so pretty that they could have been models. I was shocked some were on welfare because of their looks. If I was the guy who knocked them up I would have taken care of them and the kid and they wouldnt need welfare.

 

[Amaris]

I worked as a Plumbing CSR at Lowe's Home Improvement about 9 years ago. One day a large male customer came in and of course no one was there to help him but me (I swear I was the only one in that dept. with any kind of work ethic ). Anyway, he came up to the counter and started talking to me about wanting to build a large hot tub for his deck and showed me the parts he needed. The parts list was from the Home Depot's plumbing department. He told me that the Home Depot's total price came up to $6500, which included delivery for all of the parts needed, and that this was the least expensive method. Well, always one for a little healthy challenge, I got to work. I had been a Plumber's Apprentice a year or two before, and had a very good working knowledge. After running through my parts lists to make sure I had everything he needed, I put together a new layout for the hot tub, switching out parts I considered too expensive or completely unnecessary, and after about 5 minutes I came up with a new layout and price list. My total price? $2995.

The man jumped across the counter and locked me in a bear hug.

J.

 

[trampledamage]

Did he come back in and tell you how he got on with building the hot-tub? I hope it went well!

 

[Amaris]

Did he come back in and tell you how he got on with building the hot-tub? I hope it went well!

Oh yes. He came back about 3 weeks later and had completed the hot tub. He said the new design saved him money and had saved him energy. He was very pleased. My manager came by a couple of hours after that when it was closing time and told me they had received a glowing customer compliment regarding me, and that the man had told them he was a Lowe's shopper for life, which was nice.

J.

 

[trampledamage]

Awesome

 

[Ashu]

Ive encounter quite a bit of interesting people. I work merchandise at a good chunk of the big venues here in Edmonton. So I've met Tom Green, several NHL players and their wives.

Plus...I almost threw up on Mark Messier that one time.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I was pretty busy with a five table section one night, and I waited on this man and his wife who ordered two dinners and he gets a double shot of Crown Royal and a Bud Light bottle. I'd been pretty busy most of the night, so I was finally getting a chance to rest for a bit. He flagged me over, asked for another double shot (he told me to use the same glass, so I didn't have to dirty any extra). When I got back he proceeded to ask me if I'd seen the new X-Men movie (X-Men: The Last Stand; and I hadn't, yet). So we talked about comic book movies as he took shot after shot.

When he was finished, he thanked me for taking good care of him and told me to keep the change. The bill was about $100, there was $160 in the book.

 

[Snaploud]

I wanted to get my girlfriend some comfortable sneakers (for her work, exercise, etc.). She hadn't gotten a really comfortable pair of shoes since she was little. Her usual pattern is just to find something that looks nice.

Well, I took her to the one store that I know has great customer service. It's a place called Michaelson's. They've been in the town center for at least half a decade. These guys are the nicest old men you'll ever find, and they know their business. I knew that they would be able to figure out just the right fit for my girlfriend (who would have a tendency just to get something that feels 'okay' rather than good).

They didn't disappoint. The salesman measured her feet (both length and width), recommended a brand for her feet width, and made sure she tried on two different sizes before she chose one. There are very few salesmen these days who would ask you to try on a different size after you say that one size feels good. He knew that there might be an issue near the toes, and, sure enough, the other size fit even better. Now, that's service!

 

[auntiehill]

Back when I worked at the 5th circle of hell, also known as "Dillard's," I was put in charge of the infants department. I liked it although the hours and the co-workers just SUCKED.

One day, while stocking the baby clothes, an older woman was carrying a baby in her arms, but had the blanket wrapped OVER the child's face. I thought, surely, I must being seeing it incorrectly. I walked over to her, and she asked for baby clothes with no buttons or any decoration that could be pulled off. I tried to explain that no infant clothes had things a baby could pull off.

She said her "child" was a bit different, and uncovered the child's face. It was a baby gorilla. This lady ran a nearby zoo and animal shelter--about a hour outside of town. She took in animals that were rescued from shows and carnivals; the animals were often abandoned or abused. The baby gorilla needed clothes to stay warm, as she'd been ill and dehydrated and her immune system was a bit weak.

She asked if I wanted to hold the baby girl. I was worried that I would breathe all my human germs all over her, but she told me not to worry.

I held the baby girl-gorilla and she looked up at me with those big eyes and grabbed hold of my finger. I asked the lady right then and there if she had any job openings. She said no; they couldn't afford to pay anyone. If she had said yes, I would have left the store on the spot.

I got to hold the baby gorilla for several minutes; I even took her in the office to show my boss. She freaked out, and couldn't understand why I was so happy holding "a monkey."

But the lady came back, without the gorilla, many times and told me how she was doing. I always liked working with her. It's not every day you get to pick out clothes for gorillas and chimpanzees.

I swear, that was probably the best memory of all my many, many years in retail.



I think, in retrospect, I should have chucked it all and been a zookeeper. I probably would've been a great deal happier.

 

[Jan]

I've worked in the hotel industry for many years so I've got many customer service stories both good and bad. Two that I remember best were from my first year at an old, genteel hotel in downtown Houston.

The first was a middle-aged American lady who lived in Mexico who was coming up to Houston for medical treatments for what we later found out was liver cancer. She never asked for much, just needed us to call her a cab on the days she had treatments and then would ask not to be disturbed at all for about 24 hours after them. It was sad because we sort of watched her waste away gradually. One visit she brought small gifts for each of us on the front desk and we never saw her again. I still have the white hand painted notions box she gave me.

The other story is about people who weren't customers and probably never would be. When I was working nights at that same hotel, I discovered that there was a small conspiracy to help some people maintain their dignity going on. Houston, being of a mild climate year round, had a fairly large population of homeless. When I was training on the midnight shift I was disturbed to find that there was a small parade of these homeless people quietly going up to our mezzanine restrooms for about 20 minutes at a time. My supervisor would sometimes even greet them by name. It turns out that he and the head housekeeper would provide soap and towels and the homeless folks could go up there to wash. Never hang around, never try to sleep, only to get clean. They never failed to leave those restrooms tidy after they used them, either.

Jan

 

[SicOne]

Does tipping a prostitute for her "enthusiasm" count?

 

[SeerSGB]

Bookstore, has to be the bookstore.

We has this guy come in and just be a total asshole man, nothing could make him happy. Jump ahead a couple of hours and he comes back and apologies to everyone. Actually apologies and says he was wrong to treat us like he did, he was having a bad day at work and he didn't have the right to be rude to us and if he was going to set a good example for his kid needed to behave the way he'd want his kid to behave. He called the manager up front and told her the same thing and then sprung for a order of pizzas for the shift.

But that was a 1 off incident. More commonly was just the people that were polite, said "thank you" or "Don't worry I can find if you can just tell me where it's at" when seeing me running up the aisle answering a cashier page or loaded down with a stack of paperwork on the floor doing audits.

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

And that's it. Just being polite goes a long way.

 

[TheBrew]

Most of the customers I've dealt with have been great. When I worked for the state parks, I would bend over backwards to find campsites for people who come in late (most of the sites are on the reservation system, so you have to bend the rules a bit and make judgement calls on busy weekends like July 4th). Those people were so happy and they were great for their stay. When I ran junior ranger programs, their kids were even more excited for being there. Days like that were great.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I was browsing through an outlet store last April and I was making friendly chat with the staff. I saw a corduroy jacket on sale for 25% off of 33% off (which is 50% off total). It was a nice jacket, so it was still a good amount of money. After hemming and hawing, I decided it was worth it and went to purchase it. The problem was that for some reason my credit card was freezing the register. It then did the same thing to the other register! It was really weird. I made a joking comment that I would give her all the cash in my wallet for the jacket if it would help. She took me up on it right then and there and I ended up getting the coat for almost 66% off of retail. Shows what having a positive attitude as a customer can get you.

 

[Holdfast]

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I was browsing through an outlet store last April and I was making friendly chat with the staff. I saw a corduroy jacket on sale for 25% off of 33% off (which is 50% off total). It was a nice jacket, so it was still a good amount of money. After hemming and hawing, I decided it was worth it and went to purchase it. The problem was that for some reason my credit card was freezing the register. It then did the same thing to the other register! It was really weird. I made a joking comment that I would give her all the cash in my wallet for the jacket if it would help. She took me up on it right then and there and I ended up getting the coat for almost 66% off of retail. Shows what having a positive attitude as a customer can get you.

Outlet clothes shops are great for negotiating discounts. I haggled an extra 20% off a couple of suits already marked down about 75% the other day.

Always, always have a friendly chat with the sales staff and management at these places; they often have a lot of price discretion.

 

[SeerSGB]

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I was browsing through an outlet store last April and I was making friendly chat with the staff. I saw a corduroy jacket on sale for 25% off of 33% off (which is 50% off total). It was a nice jacket, so it was still a good amount of money. After hemming and hawing, I decided it was worth it and went to purchase it. The problem was that for some reason my credit card was freezing the register. It then did the same thing to the other register! It was really weird. I made a joking comment that I would give her all the cash in my wallet for the jacket if it would help. She took me up on it right then and there and I ended up getting the coat for almost 66% off of retail. Shows what having a positive attitude as a customer can get you.

Outlet clothes shops are great for negotiating discounts. I haggled an extra 20% off a couple of suits already marked down about 75% the other day.

Always, always have a friendly chat with the sales staff and management at these places; they often have a lot of price discretion.

Oneof the reasons I believe in store loyalty for specialty shops and outlet stores. If you're a "regular" and they know you're polite they'll do more for you than just some jackhole that walks in and demands a manager's discount and treats the staff like shit.

 

[Holdfast]

Totally. At my usual haunts, they often let me know when they have good stuff coming in, or give me at a nice deal if I spot something I like. And even if I'm not buying from them that day, but I'm in the area, I'll still pop in and have a chat and shoot the breeze a little. All about maintaining relationships really.