My car was towed recently (street cleaning…who knew?). Although I can't say the experience was good, empathetic people providing customer service helped ease the pain of paying lots of money to get my own car.
At first, I thought the car was stolen, so I called my local police. The officer was very nice, but gave me the number for the "tow line" to check first before I truly panicked. "But I parked legally," I explained. He sympathetically replied, "You’d be surprised at the reasons that cars are towed, and at least you’ll get it back in good condition."
The tow line answered quickly and I got my answer within a few seconds. Yes, my car had been towed, and I was given the number for Stadium Towing (www.stadiumauto.com) who had my car. The young man who answered at Stadium was great. He told me exactly what I had to do to pick up the car, explaining that I could pay with a credit card, but if I had someone else pick it up, they would have to pay cash. "I know, it's strange, but that’s the policy." He let me know that if I picked it up by a certain time, it wouldn’t be subject to any more fees for storage, "but if you think you might be a few minutes late, give us a call and we'll try to waive the extra storage fee because we know you're on your way." He reassured me that my car was safely locked inside the garage, not in some big public lot where it might be subject to damage. His concern and empathy made me feel much better.
I picked up the car, as instructed, and it went off without a hitch. And I felt a warmth towards a towing company! That’s unusual.
However, a bit later, when driving, I discovered that something was dragging under my car. I drove straight to my garage, Hynes Auto (www.hynesauto.com), where I've been going for 15 years. "Jimmy," I called, "My car was towed, and now something is dragging. Help!"
Jimmy looked at my car, told me that a "shield" was loose (I’m not good with car stuff), and to sit down and wait, it would be done in 10 minutes. It was, and when I tried to pay, Jimmy just laughed it off, saying, "Don't worry about it. See you soon."
So what's the lesson?
Let's look at the second part of the story first. I’ve been a loyal customer at Hynes Auto for a long time. And, because they do such a good job and treat me like an individual and valued customer, I've recommended them to dozens of people, many of who are now loyal customers. Jimmy recognizes and appreciates that. So he did a tiny repair for free. No big deal for him; very big deal for me. He understands that creating relationships with customers keeps them coming back.
The warmth of a stranger at the towing company was more unusual. Stadium had me over a barrel. I needed to get my car. They could have made it difficult and impersonal. But they didn't. They provided a great customer experience, and, although I hope I never get towed again (and probably won't use their repair services because of my relationship with Hynes Auto), I will tell this story over and over (like here). What better publicity is there than that?
Many of my most frustrating customer experiences are when dealing with contact centers that have been outsourced. CSRs follow scripts and don't respond to customers as individuals. They are almost unnaturally polite, but can’t seem to summon up an appropriate human response to comments like, "I'm so upset that this can’t be fixed; I have a deadline and need this to work." No "I understand, it must be so frustrating." Just "I'm so sorry. Is there anything else I can help you with today? Have a nice day and than you for calling XXX."
I'm not saying that outsourcing is bad. But allow your outsourced reps to be people—give them leeway to vary from their scripts in order to establish a relationship with the individuals that call. Remember, we are individuals. And in times when we need help, we want to reach out to other individuals, not a well oiled cog in a machine.
Comments