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Old 02-25-04, 02:28 PM  
Vintage VFer
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Thumbs up Two recent examples of GREAT customer service!

Example #1 - I placed an order at the Cardio Coach site for the two audio CDs and the MP3s. I didn't get a confirmation email. I emailed the site and had a very courteous reply WITHIN FIVE MINUTES from Sean O'Malley personally. He had checked on my order, gave me the links to the MP3 download, and said my CDs had been prepared for shipment that day. I received them in FOUR DAYS.

He was very polite and thanked me for my order. (I mentioned I'd heard about his workouts at VideoFitness. He'd never heard of us! But, I know he has since been here to look us over.)

Exampe #2 - I placed an order at the BodyWedge site. I wasn't sure if I had made a mistake on the order page. So, I emailed Rich Decker at BodyWedge21. WITHIN TEN MINUTES I received a reply from Rich. He thanked me for my order and said it had gone through fine. I expect that it will arrive as promised in a week or so. (OK Rich, don't make a monkey out of me - LOL!)


So, the burning question is:

Why, oh why, is it so hard for other companies to just do business properly?


I ask that, from now on, if you get good customer service, gives us the good news. To make up for all the crappy, depressing and stressful ineptitude we have to get from companies with LOUSY customer service!
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Old 02-25-04, 02:37 PM  
Debbie S.
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Volume maybe

Hi Alta. I've been giving this matter some serious thought lately and I'm wondering if volume does play a role, and in some cases, the newness (not sure if it's a word) of a company plays into this matter.

I just had a great experience with Anthony at Good Times. Initially, I emailed him to ask if my Firm order went through OK. During one of my emails with him, I told him that he helped me out with another company (who works under the Good Time umbrella) when Best Buys online refused to help me. Anthony was great. The item was on backorder and about a month later, I received the item. But, I didn't preview the DVD until months later. Well, I ended up the wrong DVD again and was too embarrassed to email Anthony because had waited so long. Monday morning a box came from Good Times and inside the box was the right DVD. He had shipped the package overnight air via UPS.
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Old 02-25-04, 03:03 PM  
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Does size matter?

Quote:
Originally posted by Debbie Stout
Hi Alta. I've been giving this matter some serious thought lately and I'm wondering if volume does play a role, and in some cases, the newness (not sure if it's a word) of a company plays into this matter.
I'm not sure if it's volume, the size or the newness of a business. I can only go by my own experiences and those of my fellow VFers.

Both Cardio Coach and BodyWedge are "new-ish" companies. Compared to say, Cathe.com or Joyce Vedral. Yet they managed to take care of business with speed and good manners.

We tend to make excuses for new companies. Yet, here are two that act professionally.

Some companies have had a rough start. And then don't seem to learn anything from their mistakes. Like BeachBody and Urban Rebounding.

About a million years ago, I worked in the film industry. I could always tell if a picture was going to be a dud or not by observing the director. A good director takes responsibility for every aspect of a film. They are dedicated, observant and good at multi-tasking.

The bad ones are scattered, pass on responsibilites to others and are asleep at the wheel. The attitude of the director, good or bad, trickled down to the lowliest extra (usually me) on the set.

We need more good directors. (Have I gone off on enough of a tangent???)

Anyway, my point is, and I do have one, is that I've had equally good and bad service from large companies, small companies, new and old, high volume or low. The one mitigating factor must be - the boss/director of the company.
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Old 02-25-04, 03:25 PM  
Cheyenne Shaw
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Alta, I had a good experience with Rich too from BodyWedge, they accidentally sent me another wedge and DVD and when I emailed to tell them about it he graciously (sp?) told me to keep the extra set as a gift. I highly recommend his company too, it's nice to have competent ppl for change
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Old 02-25-04, 03:28 PM  
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Thanks for a positive post! Good service is so important.

However, the true test of good service is when there is a problem. Service tends to be better during the exchange of money and product. When there is a bump in the road (scratched DVD, lost package, etc.), you learn a great deal about the company you are dealing with.
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Old 02-25-04, 03:39 PM  
Debbie S.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Marina
Thanks for a positive post! Good service is so important.

However, the true test of good service is when there is a problem. Service tends to be better during the exchange of money and product. When there is a bump in the road (scratched DVD, lost package, etc.), you learn a great deal about the company you are dealing with.
True, Marina, and in my babbling post, that's the message that I tried to get across. .

Alta, I do believe that it's the director that can make or break a company. I bought the Bodywedge and Rich was great to me also. Other good examples of a good director are Christi Taylor and Donna Read. Christi has made good on her defective DVD and Donna is in the process of making good on her defective DVD.

Even though Hollywood Trainer finally came through, the fact that they ignored two long distance phone calls and my emails for weeks, left a bitter taste in my mouth. My abs DVD is defective, but I'm debating if I want to deal with this company again.
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Old 02-25-04, 03:48 PM  
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However, the true test of good service is when there is a problem... When there is a bump in the road (scratched DVD, lost package, etc.), you learn a great deal about the company you are dealing with.
I couldn't agree more. And judging from the number of threads complaining about bad customer service versus those about good customer service, it's true what I learned in marketing class, that people pass on stories about the bad more than the good. You would think that more companies would remember this!!

I have only ever ordered from CKsales and they are wonderful. Even when I put the wrong postal code on my order...They tracked down my package and reshipped it, even though it was my own darn fault.

Susan
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Old 02-25-04, 04:06 PM  
lmdjc
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I vote for Amazon.

I think they have one of the best models out there. I get what I ordered when I'm supposed to and am updated if there are any bumps in the road. I love the fact that I can view my order and its status (as well as it's tracking info) at any time.

The very few times I've ever had a problem, it's been correctly quickly and courteously (sp?). In fact, I just sent them an email about this - I so depend on them to deliver - I wish other companies could be as smart.

I give them as much of my business as I can.

Unfortunately, they don't sell everything - yet!

Lisa
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Old 02-25-04, 04:41 PM  
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I think size has nothing to do with it. I have ordered from big companies that were terrible. To me it is about manners. If you are a small company and you did find yourself unprepared for volume or something, you can communicate this. I remember when Tom Holland had his bandwagon last year and I emailed him with some questions. He got back to me right away with the answers and then said it might be a few days before he can get out all the new orders because it's just him down there. I emailed him back about shipping to Canada and his answer was pretty much "Yes! We love to ship to Canada! For free!" He was just so NICE about it.

More recently I posted about my experiences with Body B Fit where not only did they get back to me right away about some defective dvds that I had not even bought from them directly (but I got it through a trade) but when there was a delay sending out the replacement, she told me she was sending me a free extra dvd as a thank you for my patience. More recently there was a bit of complainign going on at her forum about some of the reviews on-lien about her product, and when I posted on it she pretty much backed me up 100% and warned the others to please refrain in the future from posting things that might alienate other forums because so many of her new customers come from there and she wants them to feel welcome. After my experience wih Wendilee I would absolutely do business with that company again. She will definately get money from me in the future---it really does pay to be nice to people :-)

I think a lot of them don't realize that many exercise video users are collectors and will buy pretty much anything that comes out that fits their niche. I used to work in marketing and I can tell you that those sorts of people are dream customers. They know exactly what they want and all you have to do is give it to them. if you knew you had a guaranteed customer base sitting out there twiddling there thumbs and complaining oh, if only I had more things to spend my money on---why on earth would you want to screw that up? It baffles me that some of these people don't clue into this and realize that customer service can be such an important thing.

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Old 02-25-04, 04:42 PM  
Kathryn
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Talking

Alta, what a very "non-curmudgeonly" thread from you!

I wonder if some of these bigger companies (which are the ones who seem to have the worst customer service) are under the impression that they make so much profit anyway, and have so many people order again and again (ie: Goodtimes) that if they have a 10% dissatisfaction rate, tough cookies! The newer/smaller companies, on the other hand, treat the customer better sometimes because maybe they're not "just" out to make a buck, and especially at the beginning, they want to foster customer loyalty.
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