New Balance - Customer Service As It Should Be!

It must be something about Spring, but my most recent post is also about making loyal customers
http://geekmommy.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/give-a-little-get-a-little/
It's funny - just a LITTLE effort and we become die-hard advocates for the company... yet usually, Customer Service is the branch of any company that pays the least and is given the least thought.

What did you say to the customer service folks to get them to pass you along to the next boss all the way up to the top man? I'm impressed!

GeekMommy - it really has to be the fabric of the company. that's why it works so well for zappos, whose motto is "powered by service." Same with LL Bean and a few other companies i've had amazinly positive experiences with. That kind of behavior should be liberally rewarded IMO.

Wendy - First of all, New Balance lists their execs on their website. (Otherwise, I'd have looked them up elsewhere online) I left voicemail messages til i found someone in, and that happened to be the prez. The others all called me back too.

It wasn't so much what i said as the fact that this is a responsive and responsible company that cares about customers. I didn't know that before because they have a pretty low profile in general, and particularly in that area.

It was good to go through your site which has good information about how to handle the customers problem. A business man should be able to analyse the needs and desires of the customer and should be able to reach him. Internet marketing is the better way to make changes in the business according to the customers needs. Because it has one to one approach where the targeted users while browsing can reach personally.

Mixed feelings here. Glad New Balance took care of the problem, and Kudos for getting through. But at what point is it the customer's responsibility to assume liability? Did you not try on the shoes, and were they not a tight fit at the store? You approved the purchase, and then blame the store for selling you the wrong width. Everyone knows any clothing fits different people in different ways. If it's not a custom made pair of shoes all the store clerk can do is bring out shoes in the range of your size, then ultimately it's the customer, the person who's wearing them during the try on process, who decides if it's right or not. Now how is the store, or New Balance supposed to sell worn and scuffed shoes? They'll have to eat them.

Hey, but glad you got good service. Really.

Ted: I specifically asked the salesperson whether the shoes fit properly and he told me they did. he also said they would stretch and they didn't.

Both the president of New Balance and the store owner agreed that the salesman should have measured my feet (he didn't) and that he shouldn't have sold me the shoes. So yes, the liability is theirs.

But it's not all liability - they gained a long-term customer by treating me well after the sale, and here I am blogging about how terrific they are. That's worth more than a pair of shoes to them.