The Stark Realities of Customer Service

Customer Service is critical and today the differences between good and bad are more apparent than ever before. To illustrate how different companies are in this important arena (and your potential Realtor) I need only to look at two experiences I had in the past two days to highlight and underscore the those differences. I don't know if its just bad luck or karma, but I purchased two new kitchen countertop appliances over the holidays. Both failed in the past week. One, a Breville countertop oven, stopped working completely in the middle of use the other night and the other, a "top of line" coffeemaker by Krups, failed in the middle of brewing morning coffee on Saturday. Well, here is your difference in customer service. I called both companies. Breville asked me for the number on the back of the unit, issued an immediate RMA and is sending me a replacement -- no further questions asked. Krups is an entirely different matter -- I called this this AM. They told me it would take 4-6 weeks for a repair of a product that is 3 weeks old (can you imagine no AM coffee for 4-6 weeks???). I told them that wasn't acceptable and I wanted to speak with a supervisor who could help me. Take a guess ... no supervisor was available and I'd supposedly get a call back within 24 hours ... no coffee tomorrow AM either. Obviously, the contrast in Breville's approach as compared to Krups' customer service policy is dramatic and will likely affect future choices. So for me this underscores just how important it is to always put the client first, work hard to resolve issues that may arise and do so in a prompt and professional way!