All too often people with a forum, be it a newspaper column, radio airtime or a blog use it to complain about some slight–real or imagined.

Often this is because of perceived “poor customer service”. Today I’m going to do the opposite and complement a person and a firm for excellent, undeserved and unexpected customer service.

A few days ago I published a post about the new Kobo eReader I bought at my local Border’s store in the Carrollwood area of Tampa. After writing the post I emailed the link to the store’s GM, Renee Montgomery. I thought she’d find it humorous.

She replied to my email and offered to refund the twenty dollar difference between my purchase price and the new reduced price. I took her up on her offer.

Now, let’s get back to the part about the “…excellent, undeserved and unexpected customer service.” I sent Renee the link to the blog post because it mentioned her store and one of her employees. It was not written in an effort to obtain a refund. That’s not how I am. I bought the Kobo knowing the price and am happy with it. It performs as advertised and described.  That, in my book, is a fair deal. Period.

I didn’t deserve a refund. That it was offered strikes me as excellent customer service. Too often “customer service” is seen as a last resort to please an unhappy customer. Making a “happy” customer “happier” is unusual. It causes me to think if all or even most retail store managers were like Renee customer loyalty would be given.

As for me, I’ll keep going to Border’s as long as I can. Now I have an additional reason, above my primary two–coffee and books–excellent customer service!

Quick disclaimer: I am not related to anyone employed by Border’s. I am a regular longtime customer. I do own a modest amount of Border’s common stock. I am, in real life, addicted to Seattle’s Best Coffee.

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Filed under: Editorial Comment

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