Great service turns customers into raving fans

How long has it been since you were surprised by service at a shop or business?

I wonder why so many shops and businesses can’t get their head around the idea that if they offer great service, their business is likely to grow, even in these difficult financial times.

On Monday one of the gear cables on my bike had snapped inside the shifter. They don’t often break like that but when they do it’s a very tricky job to get the broken end of the cable out so that you can replace them. The break happened just before I got to work and I didn’t fancy riding all the way home in one gear.

I went down to Bikeforce South Perth in my lunch break and the owner, Nick, told me that it was going to be very difficult to get it sorted. The shop was very busy and they’ve got service work piled up for days so he could have just said that he couldn’t help at all, but Nick still took time out to get the job done. He just continued to work the broken end free, millimetre by millimetre. Eventually there was enough frayed cable to grab with needle nose pliers and Nick was able to remove the broken piece of cable. He then quickly threaded a new cable, adjusted the rear derailleur, and charged me what was an extremely fair price compared to the degree of difficulty of the job.

I couldn’t thank him enough.

It’s so refreshing to find people who are willing to go the extra mile and I must say it was nice to ride home on a fully functional bike.

When was the last time you got service that was so good you wanted to tell others about it? What is your best service story?



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It never hurts to ask

You may remember that I wrote about insurance a few days ago in my post Are you really insured? 

One of the stories I related came from my Friday morning radio programme Simply Living with Jill Bonanno and was about a lady who’d had her handbag swiped.

Jill recently spoke to a lady who had her handbag stolen while she was out. She did the right thing and cancelled all her cards but as her bag contained items that would identify her home address and her house keys she decided to change all her door locks.

Unfortunately her insurance company didn’t cover the bag or any of the items in the bag because it wasn’t at her home at the time.

During Friday’s programme we had a talk back caller tell us about his experience with an insurance company.

Bill had a different story. He had four quad motor bikes. When the two smallest ones were stolen from a locked shed, his insurer told him that they didn’t cover quad bikes. Bill politely stood his ground and will now have the bikes replaced. Apparently they do cover quads up to 250cc.

The lady who had her bag stolen was listening to our programme and decided it was worth another call to her insurance company. She called, politely stated her case, and now her insurer is going to cover everything, including the new locks for her home.

I wonder how often we just give up on something when a phone call or an email could change things for the better.

How many times do we buy defective products and just put up with them when we could get our money back or get a better product? How many times do we accept the word of the first person we talk to, rather than standing our ground and politely taking things a little further?

I’ve been amazed by the helpful responses I’ve recieved at times when I’ve simply taken the time to respectfully ask the right people the right questions. I’ve had products replaced or money returned. Sometimes I’ve been more than compensated for the failure of a product or a service. It doesn’t happen every time but it does pay to take things just a little bit further sometimes.

Have you got any stories of businesses who have done the right thing when you’ve complained?



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