3 Lessons of Great Customer Service – Home Depot

Let me share with you a recent encounter we had with Home Depot:

Background: We’ve lived in our house for 17 years now. It’s been through 5 kids and 4 grandkids and numerous other kids we probably didn’t even know. The poor carpet took the brunt of it all. When we decided to replace all of the carpet with beautiful carpet from Home Depot, we were thrilled! It was a lot of work getting ready for it, seeing as how nearly our entire upstairs is carpeted. It took an entire day but we finally got the carpet replaced. Oh the joy of walking barefooted on beautiful, soft, lush carpet!

The carpet and fumes smelt terrible, but we figured that would just go away right? I mean everything has a funny smell when it’s new, even babies. We opened every window and door in our house to air it out, but it didn’t go away and my entire family started getting sick. Our respiratory systems went haywire we couldn’t breathe properly or sleep and we had constant headaches. This has been going on for 4 weeks now.

We called Home Depot to let them know the problems we were having. We didn’t expect them to do anything actually but if there was a problem with this particular carpet or padding or glue they should be aware of it. However, we were pleasantly surprised at their response. In fact, we’ve been singing the praise of Home Depot’s customer service ever since.

Lesson 1: Listen and Genuinely Care

When Home Depot heard our story we could tell they were concerned and genuinely cared that this was affecting our family. They got the right people on the phone and made sure they fully understood our plight.

Lesson 2: Respond Immediately

Within 10 minutes of hanging up with Home Depot, the carpet installation company called us and then came over in less than 10 minutes after hanging up the phone to check out the situation. Home Depot also immediately scheduled a specialist to come out, check the air, and test the chemicals in the carpet.

Lesson 3: Fix It

Home Depot realized something had to be done so they volunteered to replace the carpet at their expense. Our carpet hasn’t been replaced yet, but from my perspective they are handling it right.

So next time a customer comes to you with a complaint, keep these lessons in mind. Listen and care, respond immediately, and then fix it! It may be at an additional cost to you, but it will ensure you a life-long customer. Plus good customer service is definitely a marketable attribute.

Note to Customers: Speak up! How can the company know we are dissatisfied if we don’t let them know? Had we never spoken up in the first place, we would have gone on being sick and upset with Home Depot for selling us this carpet. Instead, we are singing praises to their name because of how wonderful they responded!

Note to Marketers:  Pay attention to your customer service department.  Proactively act on the feedback you’re already getting before an upset customer writes a scathing tweet, blog post or newsfeed to their 500 closest friends about your company.  Many of you have automated inbound response systems in place.  Integrate these into your email marketing systems and leverage the event-triggered capabilities that they offer.  Use your messaging platform to incorporate a follow-up series that is custom tailored to the disgruntled customer.  These are the folks that can become your “raving fans.” 

Customer service is a marketable asset and if you take the time to plan for it your company will be ready and prepared with a great response when a complaint comes in.  It may cost a little time and effort but it will ensure you a life-long customer.

-Elizabeth
www.iangilyeat.com