Tuesday, August 14, 2007

(Almost) delivering excellent service

Our AC system blew up last week and I had to get it fixed.

Although it was a positive experience and the technician who came was excellent, a few things struck me about the service company.

  1. I had to try and recall the name of the service company that fixed the AC last year as I could not find their invoice. Although they have a website, they have done no Search Engine Optimization (SEO) so no amount of web-surfing located them until I stumbled on the exact url.
  2. Its web site includes a money-off voucher for service calls, which I was not told about. Not a big deal, but I remember going to a presentation by the founder of Lee Valley Tools when he talked about the frustration of getting to the front of a check-out line, only to find the person in front of you is paying less for exactly the same product because he happened to see a discount coupon. If you are going to discount products then offer it, openly, to everyone.
  3. The company sent me a nice follow-on letter, introducing its other services. But the letter was a form letter - unsigned, from someone I'd not spoken to, not related to the details of my service call.
For the sake of a little more effort, this company could build on a first-rate technician and good telephone service and really offer a personalised service that can lead the way.
So close...
Tim