Neither a pandemic nor a busy schedule is an excuse for providing poor customer service

We owe it to loyal customers to look after them by providing excellent service.

We owe it to loyal customers to look after them by providing excellent service.

An online retailer for which I have great respect responded to my product question on Jan. 12.

The problem was that I had submitted my query on Nov. 18. In fact, I had even forgotten that I had done so. What’s worse, the responder didn’t acknowledge the long delay.

I have been a repeat customer of that company, and I swear by the style, utility and quality of its products. Still, the two-month lag between question and answer was not a good look.

We’re living in interesting times, to say the least. Besides its health risk, COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on supply chains and distribution channels. Add in the always-hectic holiday season, and it can put a strain on a company’s customer-service capabilities.

But two months? That and several other recent interactions — both as a consumer and as the owner of Stay Apparel Co. — have me thinking a lot about customer service.

Looking after customers

We built Stay on the strength of two commitments: We would only ever sell U.S.-made products, and we would do everything in our power to look after our customers. Sure, it’s easier to achieve the latter when you are small, as we are.

But we are steadfast in our commitment to it. It’s pretty simple: treat people the way you want to be treated. That credo should be especially easy to remember when someone is handing over their hard-earned dollars for your product or service.

As part of our home renovation, we engaged a local craftsman whose work I had admired on Instagram. He did a small but prominent job for us during the summer. He did great work, as I told him, which led me, on Sept. 1, to ask whether he could tackle a modest project as a Christmas gift for my son.

Through more than four months and a string of text exchanges, I was led to believe that progress was being made. I knew on Nov. 4 that Christmas delivery wasn’t guaranteed, but on Nov 29 I was told that work would start “next week.”

We had constructive exchanges on Dec. 8 and 9, pinning down details of the project, but when I asked on Dec. 16 whether Christmas was an option, the only response I got was, “No.”

I followed up on Dec. 28 and was told that delivery for my son’s birthday “may be doable if not right around there.” The craftsman said he was going to start on it “this week.” But on Dec. 30, he told me that it was too cold in his work space and he would have to insulate it, setting back my project.

The day before my son’s birthday, I followed up with the craftsman to get a copy of the design that he had said he would send to me. We would share it with my son and let him decide whether he wanted to wait for his gift. Instead, the craftsman suggested I look for something on Etsy.

My final text to him: “If you had said it would take a year, then fine. If you had said you couldn’t do it, then fine. But you consistently made me believe that you were working on it. A gift I planned for in September is now not an option. I just wouldn’t do to you what you did to me.”

Raising expectations

I wish more consumers would be frank with the people who provide poor customer service. We’d all benefit from raising the bar on expectations.

Let me cite another recent example, one that gives me great hope.

While pulling together business invoices for tax purposes, I couldn’t locate one so I reached out to the vendor via chat. I got an actual employee at this Southwest company, not someone at an offshore call center. She readily provided my invoice.

Before ending the chat, I brought up one concern I had with the product I had purchased. Without hesitation, she offered a solution and to remake my original order. I asked how much it would cost.

“No charge! On us!!” she said.

I had the replacement in my hands within a week.

It was an incredible gesture, not just because it came at no cost to me but because that employee was empowered to resolve a problem right then and there.

It’s the kind of commitment to serving customers that Stay strives to emulate with each transaction. I think we acquitted ourselves well this past holiday season, whether at one of our in-person shows or when processing online orders. (One exception, my brusque response to the fellow vendor at one show, who approached our table laden with Pennsylvania-centric tees and, with no irony, asked, “Do you have anything for Alaska?”)

Nothing we did was heroic, to be sure, but we looked after our customers whether it was replacing a couple of tees that inexplicably went missing or delivering an order in person to ensure its arrival before Christmas.

Executing those seemingly little things is a big deal to us. It’s what every customer should expect.