AMAAAZZINGG BUUUTT TRUUUUUE CUUSSSSTOMMMER EXXPEERRRRIENNCCE STOOORIES (Fade out music)

Story #1

Do you Believe in (Serious) Magic?
I use a fantastic application called Visual Communicator Studio 2.0. Some of you might know it, some might not. It's a video app. One that creates high quality, professional-looking videos while resting in the hands of a distinct amateur. Me. Yeah, me. During my machine upgrade I had a serious problem installing a special "theme pack" I purchased because of version problems. Within a week, I had a full copy of the Visual Communicator Studio 2 at their expense - even though I had incrementally purchased upgrades that were combination of CD/DVDs and download. Their idea. And they followed through. I love these guys. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Story #2

Fong Rules!!
In the second edition of CRM at the Speed of Light, I wrote about a company called Myer-Emco who I use for all my home theater needs. I made the point that people don't mind paying the retail price for home theater products if they know that there is a significant and meaningful set of premium services and servicing associated with that price - otherwise why not go to Best Buy or buy online at J&R Music & Computer? Well, to get to the juice here, I had them install a Pioneer Elite Pro HD920 43" plasma TV above our fireplace (it just looks so unbelievably COOL!). In order to keep the aesthetics of the room cool, we used an RF (that means radio frequency for those of you unitiated into the world of geekhood) remote so wires wouldn't snake from the TV to wherever. But it didn't work well. Their technicians, especially this one brilliant one named Fong, came out to work on the problems which cropped up after the install. They found they didn't have the parts. They did what they could and left. Problems cropped up again. Fong voluntarily went out found the parts and came over again at 8:00pm that same night to fix the problem and will be back tomorrow to fix the final things (stuff with the High Definition antenna that needed daylight since he'll be on the roof). This was WAY above and beyond and while I can't say I expect it from Myer-Emco - this was a Fong thing - I know the quality of their service and people. Awesome.

(Can you imagine telling a customer story just so I could talk about the TV? Though the story is true, the subtext, the hidden agenda here, is that the TV is really amazing and I love it. Did I tell you, I'm a pop culture lowbrow? But I love classical music and opera too. Really -- And I can see it all on that amazing TV -- above the fireplace -- in the house -- that Fong fixed. Yes I can. Come on over and watch with me)

Story #3

Ants Vs. Exterminators: They Get the Ants, But the Ants Work Better Together
We had ants this year - they were everywhere in our house. We don't live in the country, but apparently these were urban ants - at least suburban. They decided that particularly in the wee hours of the morning there was nothing better than "happy hours" at the Greenberg residence and they would appear enmasse in our kitchen, moving in their collective-brain nefarious ways. I knew that the collective ant-brain far exceeded my own so we called in our exterminator - a company called Home Paramount. Now, Home Paramount has great technicians who are both capable and nice people. But their scheduling leaves more than a lot to be desired. They are pathetic. Let's look at the list of customer-related sins:

1. They autoschedule you for their visits and you have to call them and change them if you don't want the date they give you.
2. They give you the date via a postcard, and there is no electronic change or confirmation possibility. We got our postcard for the date they were to appear - August 10 between 9-11am on August 10 at 5:00pm and they showed up on August 11 - a not infrequent mistake.
3. They do the outside of the house and consider their responsibility over with if you're not around on the date which autoscheduled you and you might have gotten after the fact.
4. They are impossible to deal with on the phone with one person trying to deal with a large customer base.

How much of that sounds even likeable much less customer-friendly, to you? Yet, their work is technically very good and if the world was such that goods and services differentiation and quality were what retained customers - they'd keep them all. But the experience with them sucks.

Draw your own lessons from these three stories. No names have been changed to protect anyone (except the ants).