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Thread: Customer Service

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Alexandria VA
    Posts
    15,890

    Default Customer Service

    A lot of people only shop by price, and if you spend enough time, and call enough stores, you will eventually find the lowest price in the land on a given item. But is that all there is to it? It pays to do research on not only the dealer you are buying from, but also the maker of the piece. How customer oriented are they? Will your purchase go smoothly or will it be an exercise in frustration?

    Here's a scenario that played out in my store this morning:

    A customer from California ordered (2) Hancock and Moore sofas and (1) Hancock and Moore sectional in different leathers last week. She sent me an email inquiry to ask about time frame for delivery and I called to H&M to find out how long before she would have delivery.

    The leather for her two sofas was in-stock (09/16/09), but the hides for the sectional were out of stock until November 20th. That meant her sectional would be two months behind her sofas and she would not get it until late January. I knew she was not anticipating that long a delay so before I replied back to her I wanted to see what could be done to close that gap. I called my best contact at H&M and explained the situation to her and asked her if she could 'chase' this hide, which is Garfield Fawn. She then put the time in to go track down the leather buyer at H&M and asked him to call the tannery and request an expeditied ship on the leather. The tannery was sold out, but re-distributed enough hides that were destined for another company over to H&M as a favor and they will be at the factory next week. We then agreed to hand-write and 'force' the production tickets on her order to bypass the computer-generated production schedule and then the frames will get started tomorrow. End result? She should have everything by Thanksgiving in her home in California if our plan comes together.

    Its the willingness of the people at H&M to work with dealers such as me that make things come together when we see an issue develop. Its easy to run an order in a on fax machine and let the computers handle it all - anyone can do that - and most companies do. It takes time and effort to actually care about your customer orders and put yourself in your customer's place - then get cooperation to tweak the system to make things happen. I have great respect for the Customer Service staff at H&M and we have a fantastic working relationship - its what can make things happen when need be. Together we spent over an hour and a half on the phone going back and forth to pull this altogether. It would have been so much easier to simply reply back to my customer back and say " Sorry, it wont' be there until end of January 2010" but I knew she would not like that answer when ordering in September so I tried to change the scenario and in this case we were successful.

    I'm not saying that every order that has a glitch in it can be fixed like this one was, but I will say that good dealers - and good companies - always try to make things happen for the customer when they can. It's why H&M, or any of the Hancock and Moore companies (Jessica Charles, Councill, Taylor King), are my favorites. They WORK at making things happen for the customers, unlike so many others. Jack Glasheen and Jimmy Moore would have it no other way. And neither would I.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  2. #2
    Laxplaya7974 Guest

    Default

    Ahh the dreded H&M Computer. My order had a glitch as well and I can tell you that if it werent for Duane, I would probably still be waiting on my sofa!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Alexandria VA
    Posts
    15,890

    Default

    <grin> Yes, that computerized production system can really boot an order out into left field behind the foul line sometimes. Took me awhile to learn the H&M system, but now I know the work-arounds that can be accomplished when need be. I can't work magic on every order, but usually if we try hard enough we can on the majority when need be.

    Had a call this morning from a very frustrated lady (local to Wash DC) who has been trying for six months to find an H&M 8172 Chesterfield sofa to sit in. She wants to order a pair but her husband insists on trying them out. She has called every H&M dealer in five states but no one has the piece on the floor. I explained to her that she probably will not find it, because its not on promotion, and dealers all tend to floor only things that they can get a deal on (the better to put it on sale when it hits the floor). She asked me to call H&M and see if I could find a dealer who has one. So I took her name and number, then called up H&M and asked them to send me a # 8172 ASAP on a rush ship in Antelope Wine. I'll just bring one in for her to try on a rush ship, simple as that. It will go to the floor and she can order ... or not. Either way, it will sell in that leather. Just one more way to make it work on behalf of the customers.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

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