Choose Wisely

Last week I called Scootertronics to try and arrange the most recent pickup to my broken scooter. Tommy wasn't in, according to the woman who answered the phone. I asked her to have him call me- but before she hung up, I told her that it was important, and that Tommy has NEVER called me back when I have left messages, or even when he has promised that he would call.

Now I think that he may have actually called me back once, but that was back in August of 07 when he was still trying to sell me the scooter. But the exaggeration of "NEVER" wasn't really that far off.

Anyway, the woman on the phone sounded slightly embarrassed for Tommy, and told me that she would definitely deliver the message and have him call me. And if you know the theme of this blog, you won't be surprised to know that he of course, never called.

Side note: I recently read that Zappos pays new employees to quit. Basically, Zappos figured out that it is better to pay a small up front amount to weed out prospective emplyees that are not a fit for company's culture than to poison the operations of the entire organization.

Employees need to care enough about what they are doing in order to make your business a success. Their actions directly reflect upon the company- so choose wisely. Their broken promises are the company's broken promises. And if that means not having your wife answer the phones, so be it.

Basic Knowledge

Know your phone number. Give it out accurately. Seriously.

It's not an excuse that you never have to dial your own cell phone number.

I'm not sure which is worse- Not knowing your own phone number, or giving out a fake one. But in terms of customer expectations, the results are the same: Incompetence.

New Scooter, New Business, New Experience

I finally picked up a new scooter. I needed something functional while I sort out the deal on the old one.

The new one is a Yamaha Vino 125 that I bought new from a Motorcycle dealer. The entire experience has been drastically different.

For one thing, the scooter actually works. But more importantly, the entire sales process was smooth and comfortable.

The sales rep more more than courteous, and kept the process very customer focused. Specifically, he kept redoing the math on the total price of the scooter in order to make the deal seem better for me.

I'm sure he was mostly blowing smoke up my tailpipe, but it still felt good to have someone looking out for me.

The point here is really about a customer's perception. The truth rarely matters to most people. It's the perception that counts. Of course, the gap between the two can never be too wide, or customers will see through it.