Hello All,

Recently, I ordered a few items from Lee Valley, and when I received
the order, I found they had sent me the wrong clamps for the dust
collection hose I ordered. I e-mailed their customer service that
night and here is the reply I received the next morning:

"We are sorry to hear about the problem that you have encountered with
the clamps and the hose being in opposite directions in your order. I
have the hose (03J6506) and the Clamp (03J6606) at my desk and have
confirmed the problem. I am sending you two Clockwise Clamps (CW),
03J6706 which I have confirmed work with the Hose 03J6506. They will
leave our warehouse Monday and you should receive them within 2 to 3
business days. We are also sending this information to our Quality
Assurance Department to look into."

Regards,

Dennis Stimson

Internet Customer Services Representative

I received the replacement clamps today (Wed) as promised. Now thats
what I call great customer service!

Ronnie

"shooter" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello All,

Recently, I ordered a few items from Lee Valley, and when I received
the order, I found they had sent me the wrong clamps for the dust
collection hose I ordered. I e-mailed their customer service that
night and here is the reply I received the next morning:

"We are sorry to hear about the problem that you have encountered with
the clamps and the hose being in opposite directions in your order. I
have the hose (03J6506) and the Clamp (03J6606) at my desk and have
confirmed the problem. I am sending you two Clockwise Clamps (CW),
03J6706 which I have confirmed work with the Hose 03J6506. They will
leave our warehouse Monday and you should receive them within 2 to 3
business days. We are also sending this information to our Quality
Assurance Department to look into."

Regards,

Dennis Stimson

Internet Customer Services Representative

I received the replacement clamps today (Wed) as promised. Now thats
what I call great customer service!

Ronnie


No big deal - that's their NORMAL customer service - every now and then they
do something REALLY exceptional!

Great company - great products - great service.

Boy! if THAT doesn't get me a freebie from Robin, nothing will.

Vic

On 12 Apr 2006 15:06:41 -0700, "shooter"
wrote:

I received the replacement clamps today (Wed) as promised. Now thats
what I call great customer service!

Yeah, aren't they great? I think they ought to teach classes for
other companies on how customer service is done.

"shooter" wrote in message
oups.com...


I received the replacement clamps today (Wed) as promised. Now thats
what I call great customer service!

Ronnie


Well I am totally a LeeValley fan but that is what I would call Good
"Recover from a Fumble" Service. Great customer service would not have let
that happen in the first place.

Yeah, aren't they great? I think they ought to teach classes for
other companies on how customer service is done.

Won't do any good, too many people don't care how they spend, where they
spend. Just that they can spend. Too much work to use your money as a
weapon to get better service/choice/quality/price. Consumer dept rising
faster then income.

"Leon" wrote in message
. com...

"shooter" wrote in message
oups.com...


I received the replacement clamps today (Wed) as promised. Now thats
what I call great customer service!

Ronnie


Well I am totally a LeeValley fan but that is what I would call Good
"Recover from a Fumble" Service. Great customer service would not have
let that happen in the first place.

Yeah, because you've never made a mistake at work, right? GMAFB. Mistakes
happen, even to companies with "great customer service". Now, if they
didn't go back to QA to make sure it doesn't happen again, then I'd ding
them.

todd

Leon wrote:
"shooter" wrote in message
oups.com...


I received the replacement clamps today (Wed) as promised. Now thats
what I call great customer service!

Ronnie


Well I am totally a LeeValley fan but that is what I would call Good
"Recover from a Fumble" Service. Great customer service would not have let
that happen in the first place.

I think you have that backwards. If there's no mix up, there's no
customer service. There's great order taking, great shipping, etc.
Only when there's a problem does the service enter the picture.

I'm fond of saying that everyone makes mistakes, it's how quickly they
pick up the pieces that makes the difference.

R

"todd" wrote in message
...
"Leon" wrote in message
. com...

"shooter" wrote in message
oups.com...


I received the replacement clamps today (Wed) as promised. Now thats
what I call great customer service!

Ronnie


Well I am totally a LeeValley fan but that is what I would call Good
"Recover from a Fumble" Service. Great customer service would not have
let that happen in the first place.

Yeah, because you've never made a mistake at work, right? GMAFB.
Mistakes happen, even to companies with "great customer service". Now, if
they didn't go back to QA to make sure it doesn't happen again, then I'd
ding them.

todd


I agree, **** happens, it is how you recover from it that separates the good
from the bad.
I bought a Delta table saw from the "real", local, tool crib, (not Amazon!),
a few years back. It was missing the blade wrench. I told the gent at the
counter at 5:00 PM. It was in my mailbox when I got home the next day! Most
companies will not ship anything out the same day ordered after 3:00. How
they got it mailed 300 miles overnight, regular mail, messed up my mind!
Greg

"todd" wrote in message
...
"Leon" wrote in message
. com...

"shooter" wrote in message
oups.com...


I received the replacement clamps today (Wed) as promised. Now thats
what I call great customer service!

Ronnie


Well I am totally a LeeValley fan but that is what I would call Good
"Recover from a Fumble" Service. Great customer service would not have
let that happen in the first place.

Yeah, because you've never made a mistake at work, right? GMAFB.
Mistakes happen, even to companies with "great customer service". Now, if
they didn't go back to QA to make sure it doesn't happen again, then I'd
ding them.

Where did you read that? With your response I take it that you are
conditioned to think that a company that makes mistakes should be given the
recognition of having Great customer service because they are fix the
mistake. Again that is simply a Good recovery from a Fumble.
Don't get me wrong, I think they do a good job compared to most but I don't
consider a mistake getting out great customer service. Its simply the right
thing to do to bend over backwards to correct a mistake as they "should" do.
IF you have read other posts concerning this company you will find that not
every one feels that LV has a wonderful record. I have never had a reason
to complain but will not doubt that others have. Like you inferred, people
make mistakes. Great customer service does not include shipping wrong parts
to a customer. The fewer the mistakes, like LV enjoys, the better.

"RicodJour" wrote in message
oups.com...

I think you have that backwards. If there's no mix up, there's no
customer service. There's great order taking, great shipping, etc.
Only when there's a problem does the service enter the picture.


No, that is not correct. Customer service is getting the order to the
customer as he expects. It's the whole transaction from the first phone
call to the delivery of the order. If the customer gets what he expects in
all respects, "That IS good customer service." Before retiring I worked as
the GM of an AC/Delco distributer that sold only to GM dealers. We were not
perfect however I can honestly say that out of the millions of parts that we
delivered to our customers we made 4 or 5 mistakes a year on average. We
literally tripple checked every order by 3 seperate people before packaging
and shipping. We had a big incentive to not make mistakes. If we
delivered, our driver counted the pieces as he unloaded. That attention to
detail was a small part of what we considered good customer service.


I'm fond of saying that everyone makes mistakes, it's how quickly they
pick up the pieces that makes the difference.


Well maybe that is what you have learned to accept. I will totally agree
however, EVERYONE makes mistakes but good service is seeing that the
customer never has to call back except to spend more money and good service
is instrumental in the customer not having to see the mistakes. Fixing the
mistake is the very minimum level of customer service a company has to
offer.

In article , Leon
wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I think they do a good job compared to most but I don't
consider a mistake getting out great customer service

I agree. What the OP experienced was customer *satisfaction* as opposed
to customer *service*.

Lee Valley excels at both, in my experience.

Leon wrote:
"RicodJour" wrote in message

I think you have that backwards. If there's no mix up, there's no
customer service. There's great order taking, great shipping, etc.
Only when there's a problem does the service enter the picture.


No, that is not correct. Customer service is getting the order to the
customer as he expects. It's the whole transaction from the first phone
call to the delivery of the order. If the customer gets what he expects in
all respects, "That IS good customer service." Before retiring I worked as
the GM of an AC/Delco distributer that sold only to GM dealers. We were not
perfect however I can honestly say that out of the millions of parts that we
delivered to our customers we made 4 or 5 mistakes a year on average. We
literally tripple checked every order by 3 seperate people before packaging
and shipping. We had a big incentive to not make mistakes. If we
delivered, our driver counted the pieces as he unloaded. That attention to
detail was a small part of what we considered good customer service.


I'm fond of saying that everyone makes mistakes, it's how quickly they
pick up the pieces that makes the difference.


Well maybe that is what you have learned to accept. I will totally agree
however, EVERYONE makes mistakes but good service is seeing that the
customer never has to call back except to spend more money and good service
is instrumental in the customer not having to see the mistakes. Fixing the
mistake is the very minimum level of customer service a company has to
offer.

Au contraire, mon ferret! You seem to have lumped together internal
order picking procedures with external customer interaction. Different
fleas on the same animal.

Using your definition and logic, anything that improved the company is
"customer service", and that's simply not true. Customer service is
the interaction between the company rep and the customer. This from
Answers.com:

Factors which contribute to Good Customer Service

* Friendly and helpful staff
* Staff with ability to listen
* Appropriate tone of voice
* Approachable staff
* Staff displaying appropriate body language
* Staff with good product knowledge
* How staff greet the customer
* Understanding the customers needs
* Staff with good soft skills
* Wide product range
* Good quality products/services provided
* Long opening hours
* Delivery service (if possible)

Notice the preponderance of people skill and convenience factors?
Those are what customer service is all about.

Filling an order correctly is no more about customer service than is a
company's accounting practices. If the company overcharged your credit
card, is that poor customer service? If they undercharged your card,
is that _good_ customer service?

R

RicodJour wrote:

[snip of happy smiley]

Notice the preponderance of people skill and convenience factors?
Those are what customer service is all about.

Definitely a marketers spin on service...

er
--
email not valid

I have the hose (03J6506) and the Clamp (03J6606) at my desk and have
confirmed the problem. I am sending you two Clockwise Clamps (CW),
03J6706 which I have confirmed work with the Hose 03J6506.

I too have been the recipient of great service from LV. The thing here that
stands out in my mind is the "mea culpa". Although it not said explicitly,
I sense a tone of "yup, you're right we made an error".

Rant-on

Doesn't it just suck that so infrequently people can't just say "sorry, we
goofed"? I was in to local pharmacy the other day and was over changed for
an item. After the transaction was completed I checked the shelf tag to make
sure, then brought it to the cashier's attention. Instead of "I'm sorry,
we'll get you a refund sir" she just took an annoyed tone and told me to
fill out a refund form.

Is it unreasonable to expect a simple aknowledgement for being
inconvenienced?

I choose not to provide personal information for a simple cash purchase so I
signed with a big prominent 'X'

-Steve
a.k.a. X




--
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth

snipped for brevity

I think you have that backwards. If there's no mix up, there's no
customer service. There's great order taking, great shipping, etc.
Only when there's a problem does the service enter the picture.


No, that is not correct. Customer service is getting the order to the
customer as he expects.

Au contraire, mon ferret!

No need to call the guy vermin, (but I'm sure that was meant in the
cute,cuddly furry sort of way); I'm kind of with Ric on this.

I work for a small phone company, we have 4 people who make up a department
called "Customer Service". They do the things you might expect: take
payments, respond to customer inquiries, complaints and take requests for
new or discontinued service.

We also have linemen and installers who bring phone lines to residences and
business. Although they play a huge role in bringing our product to our
customers, which incedentally happens to be called a "service", I do not
consider their role to be "customer service".

At least from a business perspective, "customer service" refers to a very
specific set company functions.

-Steve




--
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth

"Leon" wrote in message
. net...

"todd" wrote in message
...
"Leon" wrote in message
. com...

"shooter" wrote in message
oups.com...


I received the replacement clamps today (Wed) as promised. Now thats
what I call great customer service!

Ronnie


Well I am totally a LeeValley fan but that is what I would call Good
"Recover from a Fumble" Service. Great customer service would not have
let that happen in the first place.

Yeah, because you've never made a mistake at work, right? GMAFB.
Mistakes happen, even to companies with "great customer service". Now,
if they didn't go back to QA to make sure it doesn't happen again, then
I'd ding them.

Where did you read that? With your response I take it that you are
conditioned to think that a company that makes mistakes should be given
the recognition of having Great customer service because they are fix the
mistake. Again that is simply a Good recovery from a Fumble.

By your definition, there are no companies with "great customer service",
since undoubtedly all of them have made mistakes on shipments. You confuse
"great customer service" with perfection. The latter doesn't exist in this
world.

todd

"C&S" wrote in message
...

We also have linemen and installers who bring phone lines to residences
and
business. Although they play a huge role in bringing our product to our
customers, which incedentally happens to be called a "service", I do not
consider their role to be "customer service".

Really, every one doing his part and doing it well contributes to customer
service. If the linemen and installers worked slowly and or does shotty
work in a customers house the customer would certainly be receiving poor
customer service.


At least from a business perspective, "customer service" refers to a very
specific set company functions.

Customer service is every thing that a company does to fulfill its
obligations to its customers. Whether or not the company does this so
elegantly that the customer never notices does not diminish this as an
important offering of good customer service. Every thing that the company
does to catch and prevent the customer from having a problem with his order
before the customer knows about the problem is a part of customer service.
If the customer has to become involved in the correction of a mix up, the
company has let the customer down in this aspect. The very minimum that a
customer can expect a company to do is to Quickly correct the problem and
take measures to see that this does not become a reoccurring event.
Every thing that very every one does to insure that a customer gets what he
expects is all a part of working towards delivering good customer service.

"todd" wrote in message
...


By your definition, there are no companies with "great customer service",
since undoubtedly all of them have made mistakes on shipments. You
confuse "great customer service" with perfection. The latter doesn't
exist in this world.


No, I am simply saying that when a customer has to be involved in correcting
a mistake in his order he is not receiving Great Customer service. There
certainly may and will be times when all goes well and he receives his
order as expected. In that instance he has received great customer service.
Me helping a company correct their mistake is NOT what I call Great Customer
service. And yes, I do view Great Customer service with Perfection. No
company is incapable of perfection at least some of the time. With respect
to a company making less mistakes and delivering what a customer expects
the company is that much closer to perfection. Working in the right
direction towards perfection is both good for the company and the customer.

"Upscale" wrote in message
...

"Leon" wrote in message

No, that is not correct. Customer service is getting the order to the
customer as he expects. It's the whole transaction from the first phone
call to the delivery of the order.

I this it's how you look at it. Shipping (with the assistance of a few
other
departments) is what gets the delivery to the door. I guess some would
consider the whole process to be a form of customer service but to me,
customer service is how fast and how well the company responds when the
customer has a question or a problem.

Yes shipping is a part of customer service and IMO an out side shipping
company is an intergral part of customer service. If you choose a shipping
company with a poor service to deliver your goods to your customer you are
not providing great customer service. Yes, this is a tough call because you
do not dictate how a shipping company conducts its business however you are
the one that the customer should responsable. If the shipping company
delivers sub par performance in delivering your product it is your
responsibility to find one that meets your and your customers expectations.
A good example is the shipping company that Grizzley uses or used some years
back. Many Grizzley customers complained about their machinery being
delivered damaged, and or misshing parts because the carton was no longer
covering the product. There were even reports of tools being delivered and
found upside down when it reached the customers address. You seldom heard
complaints about a specific shipping company, you heard complaints about the
shape that Grizzly products arrived in. That was a Grizzley customer
problem. Today you do not hear about as many problems in this respect.
Grizzly has probably made changes to improve their image. That is working
towards better customer service.

A company responding to correct a problem is simply the least you should
expect from a company. It is but a small part of working towards delivering
good customer service.

Would you rather buy from a company that delivers all of your expectations
and gets its goods to you as expected or one that makes mistakes with your
order and quickly corrects the problem?
I'll go with the one that works harder in the first place to insure that my
order is as expected rather than one that MORE often depends on YOU to help
correct its mistakes.







Recently, I tried out a new ISP service that promised great service. They
got me set up and operating within hours of my request. It was fast and
efficient. That fulfills your idea above of customer service. Over the
next
two days, I left four emails to them and three phone calls with questions.
Not one reply. I dumped them on the third day for lousy customer service
and
went contritely back to my previous ISP. I realized that customer service
(problem solving) was/is more important to me than anything else, within
reason of course.

"Leon" wrote in message

A company responding to correct a problem is simply the least you should
expect from a company. It is but a small part of working towards
delivering
good customer service.

I agree ... here is an excellent source that backs up your
contention/definition to a "t":

http://tinyurl.com/ju49u

In short:

“Excellent customer service is the process by which your organization
delivers its services or products in a way that allows the customer to
access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly
satisfying and pleasurable manner possible.”

I would say that just about covers it, and Lee Valley.

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 12/13/05

On 13-Apr-2006, "RicodJour" wrote:

Au contraire, mon ferret!

The direction this thread has taken reminds me of a line I heard recently from a
stand-up comic:

'A friend and I got into an argument over the meaning of "semantics." '

Mike

In article .com,
RicodJour wrote:

Filling an order correctly is no more about customer service than is a
company's accounting practices. If the company overcharged your credit
card, is that poor customer service? If they undercharged your card,
is that _good_ customer service?

Here's a LV example. A few weeks back we replaced all the knobs in our
kitchen. I bought several different ones to take home and choose from.

When I returned them and bought the 24 of our choice, the LV employee
at the till forgot to credit the returns (about $10).

When I got home from work the next day, there was voice mail from her
describing the error and asking me to call her back and let her know
how I wanted the refund dealt with.

Customer service, customer satisfaction.

"RicodJour" wrote in message

Using your definition and logic, anything that improved the company is
"customer service", and that's simply not true. Customer service is
the interaction between the company rep and the customer. This from
Answers.com:

Factors which contribute to Good Customer Service

I visited a farm once. The farmer had the bull service the cow. After
seeing what the bull did to the cow, I was wary of any salesman saying their
company gives good customer service.

"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
news:5Sx%f.9698$qB4.7294@trndny07...

"RicodJour" wrote in message

Using your definition and logic, anything that improved the company is
"customer service", and that's simply not true. Customer service is
the interaction between the company rep and the customer. This from
Answers.com:

Factors which contribute to Good Customer Service

I visited a farm once. The farmer had the bull service the cow. After
seeing what the bull did to the cow, I was wary of any salesman saying
their company gives good customer service.


Aw, you're just afraid it would be a lot of bull!



Vic

At least from a business perspective, "customer service" refers to a very
specific set company functions.

Apparently, by restricting "customer service" to your office workers,
your company is missing out on providing service to your customers.


You missed my point. I'm saying that one common definition of "customer
service" is a specific job description.
Sure, we all contribute directy or indirectly to customer's satisfaction.

-Steve


--
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