Superb Customer Service – A Lesson From Sears Repair Customer Care

Sears Customer Care

Quick!  When YOU think of Sears, do you think of stalwart knights riding to the rescue of your sad unhappy home appliances, ready to do battle with the ferocious invisible gremlins that brought your critical machines of modern life (Ponder!  Garage doors!  Washing machines!) to their knees?

Well?

I’ll tell you this – I certainly do!  And as I’m teaching myself the art of video, I figured…why not SHOW it as well?

But I digress.  🙂

It all started long long ago, during a stark and dormy knight, when I regaled our community with:

The agonizing death of the washing machine!

Briefly in an oh-so-tasty nutshell, my Sears Washing Machine bought a book on how to die agonizing deaths every day, and was performing each chapter regularly like clockwork.  In other words, all seemed hopeless until….

Until, I say!

Until,

SearsBlueCrewHA <== Follow them on Twitter!

heard about my woeful tweets on Twitter and got me in touch with their Customer Care center.  The rest, as they say, was history – David and Brian, customer care magicians to the max, were able to resolve my problem with tremendous followup and superb attention to detail.

Saying I was a happy camper was more of an understatement than saying that chocolate and coffee cure a smidgen of woes!  🙂

And life was joyous.

Zoom up to last week!  Imagine my surprise when Honorable Boy 2 moseyed into my office and casually mentioned, "Mom…there was a big huge bang on the garage while you were in the office.  But I’m pretty certain it’s okay!"

Insert Mother with her patented Deer in the Headlights look (often used when Mother sees Honorable Boy 1 has dismantled the DVD player with toothpicks) who bravely steps outside to see….

The garage door spring!  She sprung!

Yep, that tensioned torsion thingee finally gave up the ghost and snapped with the speed of a Mach 4 jet within the teeny tiny confines of my genteel garage(Imagine, if you will, a steel whip being operated by 493 Indiana Jones hyped up on caffeine, and you get a slight idea about just how dangerous that beastie can be!)

So!  Remembering how tremendously Sears performed their last customer service, I called up those intrepid Masters of Magic and encountered another miracle worker, Shayne.  After listening to my tale of woe and misery, Shayne engaged her masterful "find WHO to resolve the issue NOW" skills, got me the number of whom I should contact, and…(get this!) within a week, my garage doors were replaced with brand-spanking new steel marvels that has NO torsion cables of terror. 

Joy!   No more wondering if the cables will snap when my kids or mooses or Twitter Budgies are in the garage!  Safety at last!

I’m a happy camper indeed!  Sears Customer care is definitely number one in my hit parade…

(and it’s not the first time – check out my other posts over at:

They definitely walk the walk they talk.

So!  Let’s now bring this back to the most important person reading it….YOU!  How can YOU use the above story to make money in your business?

Excellent question indeed!  And here’s what I say.

1.)  First off, Sears was fantastic because the people there remembered me.  

I didn’t have to introduce myself a second time.

2.)  Next, Shayne LISTENED

Listening is such an important skill when dealing with customers…and so often, many companies and corporations simply drop the ball with this critical skill.  Just being heard contributed towards a sense of "This issue WILL be fixed" – it was very reassuring indeed.

3.)  Then….Shayne went behind the scenes and found out to WHOM I should speak.

This was pretty big, actually; prior to that, I had had zero success in finding the right individual to solve my problem (turned out to be Saul of Sears Garage Doors – again a wonderful person and a credit to his company!) .

4.)  After that, Shayne PROACTIVELY followed up.

I didn’t have to call her; she called on the day the doors were installed to see what the status was.  Brian and David (the wizards of the washing machine saga) did just that as well during that adventure too.

With such customer care, how could I fail but be thrilled…and then let my network know as well?

I spent some time online and on YouTube looking for comments about Sears Customer Care.  I found some unhappy folk and realized, gee….when customers ARE happy, what do they usually do?  They’ll thank the vendors and then, well, let it go and forget about it.

I personally think it’s time to proactively show and congratulate companies when they do a fantastic job!  Hence…this post.

So!  When YOU have to handle unhappy or clueless or bemused or what have you customers….remember these killer steps.

1.)  Treat them like a friend.  Remember their name.

2.)  Empathize with what they’re going thruListen!  That by itself can make a world of difference.

3.)  Go out of your way to help your customer solve their problem.  If you have an inside track, USE IT!  If you can give your customer a complimentary product to make up for their inconvenience, DO IT. 

4.)  Follow up.  It’s customer service like that which can make customers passionate about what you have to offer….and tell their friends to boot.

Remember, this is the age of social networking where bad news travels faster than three year olds scarf down ice cream, and where good news…isn’t shared as often as it could be. 

So….give your customers top notch customer service, and let them be your evangelists. It can do your own business a world of good!

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Get Barbara Ling’s Newsletter

Looking to get inspiration? You can get Barbara’s Daily Morning Perkup for free. Click the button below, and fill out the information in the form!

Get Started Here You’ll love what you learn… Promise!

Remember… this site is mainly a daily marketing Perkup, Smile-Maker and Newsletter… subscribe below to always have the edge in the morning!