Customer service doesn’t end at the sale

Why is it that salespeople will promise you the moon and the stars, but after you sign the papers no one will take your calls?

I mean, sure I get the whole, nyah, nyah, we’ve got your money thing – but there’s the whole opportunity for repeat business or referrals – do people forget about that?

Don’t promise things you can’t deliver – it just means that I will definitely be disappointed and share that disappointment.

Take, for example, a recent experience that I had, and one that Scott had.

Sara’s Pain: Scotts Lawn Service

So we have this beautiful front yard – it’s not a big yard, but it has all this foliage that I haven’t a clue how to care for. My grandmother is an amazing gardener. I, however, kill plants just by admiring them.

Knowing my inability to deal with one unknown plant, let alone a yard full of various unknown flora, I hit the internet to find a service.

Scotts Lawn Service came out, gave me an estimate, I liked it, so I called back and set it up.

“Someone will be out in the next 5 days to start the service”

Here’s what I asked for: take care of the front lawn. We’ve got lots of plants (ground cover) out there, and now due to my procrastination we have lots of weeds – I’d like the weeds removed immediately.

Here’s what happened:
Last Saturday some yahoo pulls up in the official Scotts van, never knocks and after 10 minutes drives off.

What I didn’t know is that he walked into the back yard, determined that the lawn needed to be mowed (which it did, but irrelevant) and left.

That’s right – he left.

He never rang the bell – never called the house – never made contact with us. Of course, if he had, I could have clarified for him that I only wanted him to work on the front yard.

So I called Scotts on Tuesday to gripe about the delay in service. That’s when I was informed about the backyard. That’s when I re-explained the service required. I made her say it back to me. Front yard. Remove the weeds.

She said he was coming that day, so imagine my shock when I pulled up to see all of the weeds still there, but an invoice attached to the door stating that he was there, had done the work, and I needed to pay.

Since I felt like the local office was full of incompetent freaks I called the national customer service number. This is where it was explained to me that contrary to what I "believed", Scotts did chemicals only.

“Well, I believed they would remove the weeds because when I said I wanted the weeds gone today they said someone would be out to take care of it”

“Yes, he came out and treated the lawn, the weeds will be dead within 14 days”

“Okay, so my current out-of-control, white-trash-looking weed-infested yard, that I explained needed immediate fixing will continue to look trashy for 2 more weeks. And no one felt they should ensure that they were clear in saying that ‘we’ll take care of the weeds’ simply meant ‘we’ll spray them today and you can watch them die a slow death for 2 weeks’?”

“That’s right. 2 weeks. We only do chemicals. The next time we do the treatment it won’t take as long because the weeds will already be dead, so this one will be preventative.”

“Oh, you believe that there will be a next time. There won’t. I’m canceling this service – because it isn’t what I wanted, and your people are unclear and misleading.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

That’s it. You guys will get my $39.95 for this one treatment and then not a penny more. The funny thing is that the original estimate was so prompt and reasonable that I already recommended them to someone – who I immediately contacted and said, “it’s chemicals only – just in case you actually wanted someone to, you know, do some physical gardening.”

Scott’s Pain: Our new frivolous purchase

Scott likes a shiny new toy as much as the next person, sometimes more. Sometimes, we’re both a little over-indulgent in our shiny new things, and this is one of them – but we knew it was an indulgence, and we admitted to ourselves that this wasn’t a must have – it was pure, unadulterated want.

It’s a 56 inch DLP HD tv.

I won’t even pretend that we were being conservative by not getting the 73 inch or even the 60 inch models. This was pure indulgence.

At the time of purchase Scott was promised that they could deliver between 8 – 10 AM – thereby allowing Scott to get to work at a reasonable time. Only the day before they called to say it would be 11-3. Now I don’t know about your job, but I can’t start my day at 3:30. Nor can I end it at 10:30. Which means you lose the whole day. Or, Scott calls and reschedules.

The only problem is they are a 9-5 company. So Scott leaves a message and calls back in the morning and asks for a supervisor and explains the problem. He’s told that while the message will be passed on, there is nothing the supe can do to guarantee delivery times.

But there is.

This is no small purchase – so there’s no reason to blow us off. Because in that moment, if not before that, Scott decided that he would be accommodated, or we would be refunded our money and we would take our business elsewhere.

Then, the driver showed up at the house at 11 – while we were both at work. Not his fault – no one relayed the message to him that no one would be there.

The next day the supervisor called Scott. Unlike her staff, she understood immediately that this was a deal-breaker. Turns out the warehouse is in Baltimore, MD, so there’s no way they are making it to us by 8-10 AM. So they are set up to do 3-5 PM today.

We’ll just have to wait and see if they come through. Hopefully by the time I get home tonight we’ll have a sweet TV with all the TiVo, DVD, X-box and other accessories fully set up. Of course, we have nowhere to sit yet, since the furniture isn’t getting delivered until the 12th. Strangely, that won’t stop us.

The moral of the story is that if you are shifty in getting the sale, you risk not only this customer but every customer this person talks to. Conversely, if you create a good experience you’ll get referrals.

Let me put it this way:

I highly recommend against Scotts Lawn service – not for the service, but for the customer service, or lack thereof.

I will highly recommend the TV store (to be named after delivery) if all goes well this afternoon. If not, guess what I’ll do instead?

Now you’re getting it.

UPDATE: I highly recommend Tweeter in Manassas, VA!