A couple months ago I wrote a blog about two distinctly different responses from one company’s customer service department (A Tale of Two Phone Calls). The problem I was discussing was that the level of customer service that a person receives from this company was very dependent on which customer service representative answered the phone. Today I want to tell you about another company’s customer service that I recently got the pleasure to experience.

Earlier this week I placed an order for some building material from a local Lowe’s Home Improvement Store. I placed the order on Monday morning and they told me that they could deliver it on Tuesday morning. However, Tuesday morning it was going to rain and so they called me and asked if it was OK to deliver it on Wednesday morning so that my order wouldn’t get damaged by getting wet. I agreed and thanked them for being conscious of the weather and its effect on my order. Wednesday morning came and they delivered the material right on time just like they said. So far, everything seemed normal. That is until I got home Wednesday night and realized that they delivered the wrong materials. (I found this very ironic considering the blog I wrote two weeks ago regarding waste in a company (Learning to “See”).

I called the store and explained to them what had happened. The customer service representative asked for my name and looked up the receipt in the computer. She apologized for the mix up and told me that she would have the shipping manager call me first thing in the morning to fix the issue. The shipping manager called first thing in the morning (6:50am) just like she said. He then asked me when a convenient time would be for him to come out and exchange the material. When I told him that any time would work, he explained that they could be at my house within an hour. I agreed. Sure enough, within an hour the delivery truck showed up, exchanged the material and apologized profusely for the mix up.

All in all, the wrong material was sitting in my garage for less than 18 hours. The response by the Lowe’s team, once I explained the error was immediate and without hassle. With only a minor coordination effort on my part, the right material was at my house before I had a chance to use it anyway. This is what I call excellent customer service!

Sure, errors are going to happen. Even with the best systems in place, people are going to make errors occasionally. The nice part is that in general, people are very forgiving of human error as long as it is corrected in a timely fashion with little to no hassle.  Obviously Lowe’s has done a good job of instilling in their people the concept of good customer service. They realize that their customers are their revenue stream and it pays to keep them happy.

This is not the first time I’ve had a good experience with the customer service representatives at this Lowe’s store and due to my continued happiness with them, they will remain my store of choice when it comes to my home improvement needs.