Once in awhile the words “customer
service” is not an oxymoron. I contacted Melissa and Doug (children’s toys)
about a Christmas gift that was less than perfect because we lost the
instructions during unwrapping. I made the inquiry by email on a Sunday and I got a response in a few hours (on Sunday) that was personalized,
and obviously answered by a person in customer service. They gave me a website address to print the
missing instructions, and a phone number to call about a free replacement of a
part we broke playing with the toy.
While Melissa and Doug have
sold out to a bigger company (I think) it appears that, for now, their customer
service is still excellent. For a $20
item (wooden magic tricks for age 6) their help seems commendable.
Wish I could say I got that
kind of service from Dick’s Sporting goods “on line” or some others on-line who (more or
less) made it hard to communicate and took little responsibility for customer
problems customer (self inflicted or not). I have
always advocated that “heroic recovery” was the only way to deal with a
customer complaint. It appears that
Melissa and Doug have bought into that philosophy. Thanks to Bruce Merrifield, an outstanding
consultant, for teaching me the term “heroic recovery” and helping me
understand what that means in the way of response, and the benefit that
ultimately brings to a business.
PS -- Amazon has been great with customer service, I have recently returned several items for credit, and got quick and very satisfactory credit and communication about the credit. Gives me confidence in buying more, since I know the return is easy -- even if it didn't ship from Amazon's warehouses. Wal-Mart has been excellent "in store" with returns as well. With or without a receipt.
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