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?"