A letter to customer service

[pegkerr]

I sent the following email to the customer service contact for the Caribou Coffee website:

I just wanted to send a note of appreciation about the friendliness of the counterpeople working at this particular Caribou.

This coffee shop is right next door to a karate studio, which has several hundred students who attend classes there each week--I believe it's actually the largest National Karate studio in the franchise in Minneapolis. I have been taking my two daughters there for classes for four years and taking classes myself. I have bought many a cup of coffee to take next door while I've sat to watch my daughters taking a class. But what particularly prompts me to write is this:

Karate classes can be very strenuous, and the students come out terrible thirsty! There is a water machine in the karate studio where water costs $1, but many students choose instead to go next door to Caribou where they request a cup of ice water.

In the four years that we've come to your store to beg for water, the Caribou staff have ALWAYS been unfailingly cheerful and polite about these requests. Sometimes there is a water dispenser set up with cups beside it, but if there isn't, and if the students ask at the counter, they are never turned away, no matter how busy the store is, and I have NEVER seen even the slightest hint of annoyance on the part of any employee over a request that they must get many, many times a day.

Your people are UNFAILINGLY friendly and courteous, even to people who are (at that moment) not actually buying anything but simply asking for a favor. You had better believe that has made a very positive impression. I feel warmly welcomed every time I step into the store.

Thank you.

I just got a nice email back from the customer relations department, thanking me for sending the note, and saying they'd pass on the praise to the store and the district manager. I know that there are several communities on LiveJournal where people complain either about lousy customers or lousy shopping experiences.

It's easy to complain when things go wrong. Tell me instead about a business that you like to patronize because they really impress you. Have you ever taken the trouble to thank them for it?

Comments

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

My local Caribou (Oak Park, IL) has great people there too. They learn the names of all their regulars (I like to drop by in the early mornings and write) and the place is like Cheers now. Everyone knows everyone.

[madlori.livejournal.com]

I try to give positive feedback whenever I can, because I've been a retail manager and I know how awesome it is (because most people only communicate when they're mad).

As a matter of fact, earlier today I emailed some comments to Arby's. Last night after being sick all day I ventured out craving a roast beef, still half-dead, and the young man at the drive-thru was so smily and friendly that it actually cheered me up a lot.

I'm not sure there's a business that I patronize strictly because of awesome service (that I wouldn't patronize otherwise), but many of the stores I go to regularly have impressed me with their service, particularly the Cup 'o Joe where I go with Brian and my local Bath & Body Works.

[moony]

I will never forget the concierge at the Marriot in Hamburg, Germany. He not only called around to find me a dentist when my molar became infected, but he walked me to the dentist and stayed to translate for me. He even gave me a chunk of cloves to bite on until we could get there, to ease the pain, and comped all my soup and squishy foods afterward. He made sure I had ice cream. :-)

He was awesome, and he made a bad experience something I can remember with a smile.

[jeanineers.livejournal.com]

Now THAT's a great customer service story!

[mkaout.livejournal.com]

Last year, I bought a hanging pan rack for my husband's birthday. Not content to simply present it to him, I really wanted to hang it up. Obviously the job had to be done correctly, so I went to my local ACE hardware store and a young man named Mike helped me for about 30-45 minutes to find all of the right supplies. The total cost was under $4, but his time and knowledge were worth much more than that. Once the pan rack was hung, complete with pans (I was still nervous it would come crashing down, despite all of his help), I called him up and said thank you to both him and the store manager. I will always go to ACE over Menards or Home Depot.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of our local Chick-Fil-As has amazing service. I don't want to attribute this to the company's religious underpinnings, but I feel the need to mention them.

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

Yup. I loved a little coffeeshop here in Seattle where I wrote most of Dreadful Skin; and I even thanked them in the author's notes and gave the barrista a copy.

Then they closed a few months later.
:(

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

Oh -- but as an obvious (doh! should've said instead) I tried to make as public as possible how thrilled I was with Spainy's new vet the other day :) They were awesome, and they have found a new patient for as long as we remain in the area.

[loup_noir]

I try to make it a point to send emails whenever I get exceptional service. The responses are fabulous, ranging from quasi-English to gushing to form letters.

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

My first year as an undergraduate, new to campus, new to town, new to public transit, I sent a thank you card to the local bus company for all the helpful, polite, and extremely patient bus drivers- the courtesy any all that I had encountered really, really impressed me.

This spring I sent a thank you to our department's IT guys, pointing out that not only are they prompt with responding, usually fix the problem, but are so patient and considerate while working with us. There are other IT departments that help at different levels, etc., but with the other ITs the frequency that I'd get blown off, treated like an idiot, or the snide way they'd conduct themselves they had made me realize that our IT guys aren't just professional, they're gems.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Recently, I got lost. I have a good sense of direction and am generally pretty good at finding things, which makes it all the more frustrating when It's Just Not There.

I stopped at one of the avionics places at Flying Cloud Airport. Semi-randomly: No reason except they were just off the main road and open at 9am. Even they couldn't actually find the place, but based on the address he said it had to be somewhere around here.

To my great surprise, I found it, by a combination of their advice and dead reckoning.

At the end of the day, I found their phone # and called to thank them. We didn't chat for too long, but I bet I made his day; he certainly made mine.

[folk.livejournal.com]

I love the Pret sandwich shop near my old office, because I got to know the staff there and they were always cheerful, knew me by name and had a smile. I rang up the central office to praise them, and thanked them personally frequently.

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed the Pret shops when we were there- so did my daughter, who discovered chicken with bacon sandwiches. While I like Subway sandwiches, they're too big for my taste, with too much bread. I wish we had an equivalent shop in the States. We may- if so, I haven't found it. OTOH, til I'm permanently off Atkins, I suppose it wouldn't matter much. I was really impressed both the quality of the sandwiches and the friendliness of the staff. A large group of us ended up hanging out at one in a tube station- I forget which one- while we were waiting for the rest of our party to catch up. While it was off-peak, I was really the only one of perhaps 10 of us who bought anything and they didn't even look disapprovingly at us for loitering.

[sraun]

attaboys exists to tell about good customer service!

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

My desk is actually a vanity table, and while I like it, it is not perfect. It's too short for my chair, for one thing. So I went to the hardware store, thinking 'blocks of wood' and hoping they wouldn't make me buy and walk home with an eight-food piece of lumber. I have a hacksaw, but some things are ridiculous.
So the hardware store man, also an Ace guy, like the one above, listens, says he has some scraps he'll cut up, takes me out back to give him an idea of how big they have to be, and tells the cashier they're ninety-nine cents for the lot of them.
I very much like my hardware store.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

Ack! We really appreciated the efficiency, helpfulness and wonderful competence of the employees at a small shipping center near where we lived in Philly during our move. I wanted to send an e-mail to their manager on their behalf.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

We live in a small Massachusetts "city" that sports at least three Dunkin' Donuts. Two are habitually user-surly, but one is consistently a) the busiest and b) the nicest. I have at least three times in the past four years taken the (various) managers aside to thank them and compliment them on their staff's friendliness and helpfulness.

[eal.livejournal.com]

I sent my favorite professor from college a letter a few years ago letting him know how important he was to me and how much he influenced me. I thanked him for setting such a great example for me to follow of what a professor should be.

He passed away earlier this year and his wife made a point of coming to talk to me after the memorial service to let me know how much he had appreciated that letter.

Now, mind you, about six years earlier I wrote letters and did the whole bit to make sure he won an important teaching award at the school and insisted he come to the ceremony for it, but she said that letter was more important to him.

I know it's not quite customer service, but there you are.

oh yeah...

[mkaout.livejournal.com]

this reminds me of the day after I graduated from high school... I drove around the suburb of St. Louis dropping off letters to my various favorite teachers...

1st grade...Mrs. Fall... taught me how to stay in my seat; but only gently scolded and never criticized... later learned I had a hearing problem which was the problem...Mrs. Fall was integral in figuring that out

4th grade... Mrs. Morse... taught me how to LOVE books, not just read them
6th grade... Mrs. Sirota... who gave me a maxi pad when my period started (really started) unexpectedly in the middle of orchestra
7th grade...Mr. Betts...a crotchety old man... who loved EACH of his students...even me...a c-student in his class, but no matter
7th grade...Mrs. Tinucci... I was placed in her "regular" English class after getting a C in "Advanced English".. She made me feel like a genius
6th grade, 10-12...Mrs. Rogers... My choir teacher. She began teaching at my elementary school as the music teacher the year after she graduated. You know... recorders, triangles, etc. And then she was "promoted" to the choir director of my high school (and I was THAT kid...choir, musicals, show choir). And, man o man, she made a difference in my life. Smart, funny, challenging, honest.
...
anyway

I dropped off hand-written letters to each of them the day after I graduated...no easy feat since I was awake until 6:30 a.m. watching the sun rise with people I barely remember now. But I still remember those teachers.

[hhw]

Every time I use the free wireless internet at the Portland, OR, airport (PDX), I write to thank them for providing it.

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

I get coffee every morning at the same convenience store. The staff always talk to me, and many times I've gotten free coffee from them. They're always friendly and when they ask how you are, they really seem to care what the reply is.

At Revolution, the cafe/bar I hang out at, the bartenders usually have a Blue Moon (wonderful wheat beer) poured for me when they see me walk in.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

I've been taking my cars to the same mechanic for about 15 years. His service has always been good, his prices more than fair and I've had confidence that he wasn't going to rip me off. I always try to tell him thank-you when he's done doing anything for me. I found out today that he is closing up shop as of the middle of next month. I'm not happy about that, but if he has decided that it is time to retire, then I wish him joy in his retirement.