I’m heading to Seattle tomorrow. It’s about a 3 hour drive and my tires were starting to mimic that of a newborn’s behind. Well, that and the last time I drove to the Emerald city, one of my tires decided to belch while on I-5.
(Used under Creative Commons, thanks Gerardov!)
I didn’t want that to happen again
So I shopped around online and found that most all tire companies are the same, well, at least in price. So I had some errands to run and went to the one closest to where I needed to be – America’s Tire/Discount Tire.
When I walked in, I noticed they were hopping, not surprising for Thursday at 3:30. Still, no less than 3 employees looked up and greeted me. Then the phone started to ring, and I mean, started. Within one ring an associate picked up the phone and their greeting stopped me dead in my thoughts. – “Thank you for calling America’s Tire, How may I make you smile today?”
Wow. Now I’ve worked in Customer Service for the better part of 15 years and very often, when I’m calling businesses, you can tell the person on the other line is seriously disappointed they have to answer yet another call. This wasn’t the case with this guy. He sounded genuinely pleased to answer the call, and the ensuing questions.
(Used under Creative Commons, thanks rkleine!!)
I waited patiently until it was my turn, went up to the counter, informed the guy of my car’s year, make & model. Informed him that I only need 3 tires (since I just replaced one.) He looked at his computer and said, This one says you need one thing, but I want to match them to your current tires. He went out, looked at my tires and came back, turns out, the computer wasn’t exact. He found me some tires which were cheaper than the computer said, with lifetime replacement/repair and he said he would cover the tire I bought at that other company under the same warranty for no additional charge.
Now, this was a pretty busy evening, but I was informed it would only take an hour for them to get my car in and out of the service bay. So I went off to run my errands. Forty-five minutes later, my phone rang, they were almost done and wanted to let me know.
When I got back to the location, they were pulling the car out of the service bay, parked it in front and as I went to get my keys, the service tech informed me about their suggested rotation schedule, their replacement policy and what tire pressure my tires should be at. That’s never happened to me at Les-Other place.
As the gentleman handed my keys back, he reached out to shake my hand.
(Used under Creative Commons, thanks K.Hoppdelaney)
With that, and all the above, America’s Tire just made a very happy, and loyal customer.
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Top 11 Posts of 2011
Well, we’re almost to 2012 and recently I posted my top 11 photos of ’11, so I thought I would dig around in my stats and share with you the items that a plurality of you decided to visit over the year. They’re ranked by number of views.
11: (Dis)Engaging Google+ – I’ve written that I’m not a fan of Google+. Based on my experiences, my opinion hasn’t changed from August 11, 2011.
10: 10 Things (About me) – Interesting, this post, written around my birthday in 2010 garnered enough views this year to make my list. I find it funny that it’s number 10.
9: Oh, to be Popular. #199 – My 199th blog post here. A photo essay of my top Flickr photos. Be sure to check out #1 if you haven’t already.
8: Crossroads. Help Me, Pathfinder! – A great post about my future education and where I want to go from here. I say it was a great post because it offered me some good conversations with people about the state of education, what I should focus on as I continue forward and helped me figure out where I truly am in my head.
7: Good Customer Service: America’s Tire – I’m thrilled that a “Good Customer Service” story made the list. The adage goes, a happy customer will tell no one, while an unhappy customer will tell everyone. That’s not true in my case, I try to give equal time to good and bad customer service.
6: O.H. in the E.R. – On of my funnier (and sad) posts about an ill-fated trip to the ER last August. My pain is your joy. The things you hear in an ER waiting room are rather funny. If you take the time to listen.
(Photo Credit: Sea Turtle on Flickr)
5: Following the Pack (or not) – A post from last February where I offer my commentary on a “gorilla marketing tactic” on Twitter that was horribly spammy. I found it interesting that my desire to speak up was met with extreme hostility and mob mentality, which border-lined on bullying. I still stand by my opinions and observations. Sometimes you have to go out on a limb. Be bold.
4: The Lone Zebra, an Educational Opportunity – Written regarding a kerfuffle in the Real Estate Community about copyright and trade dress infringement. This gave me an opportunity to put into real life practice some things I had been learning in my Business Law class. It was a great case study.
3: Guest Post: Judgment Between The Lines – I’m so thrilled you liked, or viewed, this post. It was an important post. A guest post by my close friend Sarah Salter, she writes about something I think we all struggle with: Judgement and its many forms. An extremely timely, timeless and poignant post, worthy of read, whether it’s your first time or tenth.
2: Missing The Mark: Sears – Christmas Customer Service – Wow. This post, written just six days ago, outlined some poor customer service I received from a National big box store. Outlining the systemic issues from corporate culture, to employee detachment (An employee adds his comments to the post) it has become one of my most popular Customer Service Commentary posts.
(Photo Credit: Synchroni on Flickr)
1: You’re Welcome?!? - A post from this summer, I volunteered at a women only half marathon this year, I was struck and moved that almost every single runner, no matter how fatigued or festive, took a moment to thank the volunteers, when all I really was doing was standing in the middle of the road. I’m very thankful and grateful that this is my number one viewed post. It makes me believe that you all enjoy a little bit of gratitude in our world and maybe we/I need to be sharing a little more of it.
I’m extremely proud of these posts and some of them I think are close to “my best.” I hope that this streak continues in 2012!
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Posted in Customer Service, School, Thoughts, Writing
Tagged 2011, About me, commentary, flickr, Good Customer Service, Google, Google Plus, Gratitude, Hope, Judgement, love, Sarah Salter, Schnikism, School, Sears, statistics, thankful, Year in review