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?"