Do you get good customer service from the service sector?  I love hearing the two simple words, “Thank you” when I pull away from a fast food drive-thru.  I hate it when the worker barely acknowledged that I’m there but I don’t complain because I feel like the workers life must be bad enough if they’re working at a fast food drive-thru.

Last week I had the privilege of being the recipient of one of the BEST customer experiences ever.  My seller was moving his big TV when he dropped it on the hardwood floor.  Not only was the TV irrepairably broken, but it also put big dings in the hardwood floor.   He was terribly upset because he had to leave town and couldn’t fix it.  He authorized me to call a vendor on his behalf to make things right.

On the referral of my broker, I called a local hardwood floor contractor, explained we were closing in two days, and asked if he could take a look.  The contractor got there a couple minutes early, but patiently waited outside in the humidity for me.  When we got inside, he looked pretty hard but finally said we had two options:  1.) pull up hardwood from a hidden part of the house (under the fridge, the pantry) and replace the boards with the dings, or 2.) fix it with putty so it blends in an no one needs to know.  His recommendation was to try choice #2 and I said, “Oh heck yes. Let’s just try to repair.”

After he made the repair, he said the high gloss look would eventually go away (I was nervous) and it would take about four hours to dry completely.  I asked how much was owed, and he said, “No charge!  You’ll remember to refer me next time!”"

I have already referred him to at least three other people in less than a week.  I plan to write about him on my community blog site because his work was outstanding.  That was truly a GREAT customer service experience!

I did disclose the accident to the buyer’s agent and that it had been repaired, but because the buyer had been extremely picky up to that point, I paced.  The buyers looked at the repair and they were fine with it!