I’m reading a great book at the moment by Fergal Quinn called Growing the Customer. Fergal is a pioneer in the field of customer care and made sweeping changes to how Superquinn operated based on his creed of always listening to his customers (and taking action on that, of course!). It’s a very simple yet overlooked aspect of any good relationship; the ability to listen.
As a result of this I have been doing more listening myself lately. Listening but also looking. Looking for great examples of customer care in my own every day life and also (perhaps as significantly) looking for bad customer service and learning from that too.
And so here’s a little story where I was fortunate enough to be on the recieving end of great customer care from a dublin outfit I have always been impressed with. It’s a slightly embarassing story too and will make me look like a right eejit. But in the interests of blogging and your own amusement I will proceed.
I’ve been playing guitar and writing my own music for the last 19 years. I stopped playing for a while as college work (National College of Art & Design) became more demanding but making music has always been part of my life and a part that i’ve been revisiting a lot more lately. After buying a new Fender last year in Musician Inc and watching it sit in the corner with no amp I decided to head back to the guys and get a Fender Blues Junior.
The sound is amazing – sweet, clear and the tone is gorgeous. My writing has been more prolific even in the last few weeks and playing music again has really complimented my design work too.
And then one morning it all stopped.
No sound, no blues, no jazz. Nothing at full volume. Nothing from different sockets from different guitars in different rooms at any time of the day or night. In short, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift had all left the building.
So to get to the point…
Amp sent back to shop.
Loose valve is tightened.
Amp is returned.
Amp plugged in. No sound.
Phonecall to store.
Amp sent back to shop.
Amp gets a week of playing, TLC and abuse.
Impatient phonecall and visit to shop where “Amp is working perfectly”.
Amp is returned.
Amp plugged in. No sound.
Phonecall to store.
Amp, Peter and my own guitar sent back to shop.
Amp plugged in and Hallelujah – sound!!
I couldn’t believe it. It was the old lead I had all the time. I am normally a lot more pragmatic and methodological than to have overlooked something so simple and I was hugely embarassed.
But the point of all this was to credit Colin in Musician for his patience with me and he even insisted that I should take a new lead for free. An expensive one at that. So thats what I call great customer service. I was in the wrong all the time. The lads never lost patience and I came out of the whole situation in a better position than before.
If you’re thinking about taking up guitar or getting a new amp, pedal or lead (working one) then you could do worse than drop into Musician on Drury Street, Dublin.
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