6:39 AM - Customer Service on Fire: An Inside Look
There's never a day that goes by for our friendly and helpful customer service department without some angry customer flying off the handle about: a delayed order, no tracking information, defective part, warranty question, and my personal favorite - customers who purchase the incorrect product on our website, calling in upset over the completely wrong Jeep soft top or Jeep decals had they ordered, for example. I'm one of those individuals in our 4WheelParts.com customer service department.
One of my most memorable customers was a gentleman from Cincinnati, who initially meant to order a 6" inch Skyjacker lift kit from our website for his 2002 Dodge Ram 1500. He called two weeks later and stated he mistakenly ordered a 12" Skyjacker Lift kit (twice the size he meant to order initially) which had shipped to his door by UPS. The customer did not notice his mistake until 2 weeks later when he took his vehicle into a shop and have it completely taken apart before checking to make sure the right parts ordered were complete.
He came in guns blazing from the word go. Dropping F-bombs all over the place and suggesting that I find a new job because 4 Wheel Parts would no longer be in business, the main theme of his complaint was us not providing some type of help to their customers on selecting the correct parts. I told the gentleman (who was not too gentle but upset, unreasonable, and offensive) that our customer service department and sales department where available if he had any questions with regards to obtaining part numbers for his vehicle year, make, and model.
He went on to state that the part number was not clearly visible on our website for him to see and refer to when calling in. He then asked to speak to our customer service manager so that we can fully refund him and pay his costs to ship the wrong parts back to our warehouse. After calling his attention to our return policy that mentions that we do not cover shipping back on returns, he stated that he would then just keep the parts and purchase the rest of what he needed to complete his vehicle project. To fill his request, we contacted the manufacturer Skyjacker to obtain the rest of the part numbers for his kit, only to find out that they were on backorder for two months. Needless to say, this infuriated the customer more, who just went off on me. His let loose and the only two sounds I understood before he hung up on me were another F-bomb and a click.
I knew he would call back, and two days later I got a voicemail from our disgruntled customer in Cincinnati: "Good morning, Sean. I have contacted my lawyer and he stated to contact you and tell you to ship my parts before we sue the pants off your company and you're left on unemployment like lot of Americans". I returned his call and he stated that he wanted a manager to actually do something to get him his part ASAP. We sought to assist him by temporarily billing and shipping for the original 6" Skyjacker lift kit part he wanted, which was complete and in stock, then pick up the 12" Skyjacker lift. He screamed: "NOOOOO" and said he had already purchased the wheels and tires for a 12" lift, therefore he would wait.
After two months we finally received a call from Mr. Cincinnati stating that he was happy with his 12" Skyjacker lift and apologizing for the way he acted as he had run up a nearly $1,200.00 storage bill at a shop for his vehicle. I simply responded with a friendly, "No problem, sir. I understand. You have a nice day now." From customers ordering Jeep decals to Jeep soft top kits to full suspension systems, this was just one of the many memorable customer experiences that I had this year at www.4WheelParts.com .
There's not one day that goes by that either myself or a co-worker deals with one of our customers who just make our next 10 seconds to 1 hour the most difficult time to be on the phone. But it's all good. It's just something that comes with the job and I have learned to adapt to it. I think it better prepares me on how to work with future customers having the same problem. "4 Wheel Parts, this is Sean: how can I help you?"
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