Understanding Quality Customer Service!!

[TV_Tech]

Something you don't see much of these days and there's more than one moral to this story I discovered in a vintage electronics magazine....

 

Handling do-it-yourselfers

By Jack Darr

Radio Electronics

July 1961

 

“Lessee. Dollar ninety. Thank you, sir,” he said, accepting the money, and throwing the old tube into the waste-basket. “how's the thing runnin'?” “Fine, fine. Picture's just as clear as a bell. Didn't have a lot of sound, though”

 

“Well, that oughta fix it up. If it doesn't, holler,” said the Old-timer. The customer agreed, and left. The Young Ham glared after him.

 

“That's another kind of character I can't stan,” he growned. “Darn do-it-yourselfer! Why don't they call us instead of messin' with their sets all the time?”

 

“Look who's talkin'!” The Old-Timer grinned as he started to check a TV set on the end of the bench. “Who was it took off the head of that hot rod of yours and ground the valves last week? Th' Ford garage?”

 

“Well, that's differen,” said the Young Ham.

 

“How?” asked the Old-Timer innocently.

 

“Well, I—that is, I ought to---Awee, you know what I mean!”

 

“Makes a difference whos corn the shoe's pinchin', don't it?” quipped the Old-Timer. “No, sir, knucklehead, the sets these guys mess up are usually their very own, and they have the right to do anything whatever they want to them. Besides, we should be the last people in the world to gripe about 'em. Who was it got three alignment jobs last week on radios that had been tuned at home?”

 

“Me,” admitted the Young Ham.

 

“And whowas it,” continued the Old-Timer, “that got to install a new flyback transformer, speaker and quite a bit of other stuff on old mand Spritzer's set week before that, after he repaired it himself?”

 

“You,” said the Young Ham.

 

“So, don't knock the do-it-yourselfers. If they want to tinker with their own sets, let 'em. Especially if they come in here and buy the tubes from us. I know this last guy has cabbaged a lot of free advice off me, but he buys all of his tubes an' parts from me, which is just clear gravy, and I sold him a new picture tube only last month, too. The're customers, just like anybody else, and we want to treat 'em with the utmost respet, just like all the rest.”

 

“I guess you're right, there, at that,” said the Young Ham. “I never thought of it that way. They were always just a nuisance to me.”

 

“Junior, no customer is ever a nuisance!” said the Old Timer severly. “They're our bread and butter and don't you forget it! Two very important things you gotta have to get along with people and you'll find, if you check up, that a very large percentage of our customers are people. Two things: tolerance and freindliness! You gottal have tolerance. People bein' what they are, they've got their little quirks and idiocyncrasies, and you've got to learn to ignore irritatin' ones. You've got to make allowances for people, just the same as they make allowances for you! If you treat 'em as just plain human bein's and try to get along with 'em you'll find almost all of 'em willin' to meet you more than halfway.”

 

“I see,” said the Young Ham.

 

“I sure hope you do.” delared the Old-Timer seriously. “That's about the most valuable asset a man can have. Next, comes friendlyness. I'll tell you a little secret. I really try to make friends with everybody that comes into this shop, customer or not. If there's a secret to success, that's it. Make a real sincere effort to make friends and the chances are you'll succeed! No phony stuff or puttin' in on a big gland-hand act when you don't mean it. People can spot that high-pressure stuff a mile off! Take them two characters that was in here last week sellin' magazines. Why, they had a sales talk that just wouldn't quit! You'd have thought I was their long-lost brother or somethin', but it was just as phoney as three-dollar bill! And for that reason, I didn't buy their darn magazines! I can't stand high-pressure salesmen!” “That's the truth,” agreed the Young Ham. “I've seen some of em workin' on you. I thought you were going to have to throw that pair out bodily, you kept saying no so much!

 

“True, true” said the Old-Timer with a twinkle. “But, no kiddin', I'm serious about that makin' friends business. I'd like to see you practicin' on that. Learn to feel sorry for he customer when he comes in with troubles. Sympathize with him and let him see that all you want is to get him out of his trouble as quick and as cheap as possible. If you can get that message across to him, that you really mean it, half the battle's won and he's gonna feel a lot more kindly toward you. You've not only made a friend, but a faithful customer; one who'll recommend you to his neighbor when he's in trouble. And lemmet tell you one thing, Buddy boy, that right there is the best and cheapest advertising that you can get and that kind you can't pay for!”

 

“Yes, sire,” continues the Old-Timer, “you gotta remember those two ideas all the time. If you make a mistake, admit it. If you're right, be real quiet about it and let the customer find out about it himself. O course, it helps if you kinda nudge him along the right track a little. But, in the long run, there's one rule that you want to be a successful costomer-relations man”

 

“What's that?” asked the Young Ham.

 

“The Golden Rule!” said the Old-Timer. “Do unto others as you'd have em do unto you! Let's go gitta 'nother cuppa cawfee.”

[Koach]

very true 

[Stormy]

How true, all good advice for everyone, not just people in business.

I've heard it said "in order to have a friend, you have to be a friend"