Well Done – True Value, True Service

Real customer service has all but vanished.  So when we find it we want to report about it and celebrate it!Between recorded messages when you call most any company for help or service, and having to pump your own gas, and self-checkout becoming more and more prominent in stores, it is harder and harder to feel valued as a customer.

But recently I had an experience, albeit small and local, that I feel is worth reporting, if for no other reason than to acknowledge and celebrate the good where we find it.  That is what our Well Done posts are all about.

I realized late on a Friday that I was missing some double sided screws that I needed to attach two shorter rods together to make a longer rod we needed for the length of the window.

I went to a well known hardware store, sure they would have what I needed, but I could not find what I was looking for.  More troubling than that, I couldn’t find anyone who worked there to help me.  Finally, someone tried to help me, but with no knowledge of the store’s inventory, he was of no real help at all. “Sorry, I guess we don’t have it”, was his response as he walked away after looking for about a minute.

Frustrated and a bit annoyed I went to my car to head home, giving up until the next day.  Then I remembered, that though they are not a large a store, the True Value Hardware store right in my neighborhood had often had the things I needed.  By now it was almost 6 pm  on a Friday evening and I was pretty sure they closed at 6 pm so I thought I would call to find out.

The young man who answered was very friendly and very helpful.  He knew exactly what screws I was looking for and went to check to be sure they had them.  When he came back to the phone he assured me that they did have plenty of them. “How many do you need?” he inquired.  “Just two”, I told him and then added “Do you close at 6 o’clock?”  “Yes”, was his reply, “but I’ll wait for you if you need them tonight. I’ll have them for you at the register.”

At about  6:15 pm I was standing at the register in the Altadena True Value Hardware store paying for my doubled sided screws.  This very helpful and polite employee had clearly not waited and kept the store open because he was going to make a big sale.  He stayed open because I was a customer who needed something and he was in the business of customer service…a hardware store just happened to be where he practiced this customer service business he is in.

On a Friday evening, a 20 something young man certainly had many more places to go and things he could be doing, than wait around for a customer he didn’t even know to come in and buy $1.48 worth of goods. Whether it was his parents who instilled a good work ethic, or True Value who demanded good customer service from their employees, or maybe both, it doesn’t matter because either way, you can bet the next time I need anything from the hardware store, I will head there first.  And to True Value and especially that employee, I say Well Done!

P.S. We would love to hear from all of you about the reports you have of good customer service so we can celebrate the good together 🙂