Great Customer Experience: Part I
I decided to call my experience with Three Chairs (a retail furniture store with a few Michigan and Indiana locations) Part I, because I am hopeful that I can continue to report on great experiences with lots of other companies along the way. Given that I just added a comment about my bad experience buying from Dell to today’s Church of the Customer post, I’m glad I can end this Thursday on a positive note.
I just got a very friendly follow-up call from Nathan at the Ann Arbor store. My brief conversation with him capped off what has been an overwhelmingly great purchasing process for me. Here’s the story:
I was in Ann Arbor in late October for a football game (what else?) and did a little shopping downtown with my mom. We walked into Three Chairs because the store itself is lovely and the furniture is my style: contemporary/modern. I wasn’t planning to get anything, but a very colorful rug caught my eye. My mom’s great idea was that the rug could be my Christmas present, so a few days later, after I’d returned to Vermont, I called the store to place the order.
They made sure I confirmed the style by sending me to the rug maker’s web site, Dash and Albert. Then, they quickly set up a drop ship to reach me in time for Christmas. It was a very easy and efficient order.
Much to my surprise, the rug shows up only a few days later – and I loved it! Today, it is roughly 3 weeks later and I get this nice follow-up call. As I told Nathan, I will definitely be dropping by Three Chairs the next time I’m in Ann Arbor (and I’ll tell all of you how great it is in the meantime).
Dell, take note. People like me notice the little things like: how much or how little hassle the phone order is, how quickly the item arrives and whether it was exactly what I was expecting or not, and the kind check-in phone call a few weeks later was just icing on the cake.
Certainly, rugs are different than computers – with components and software details involved in the order – but the ease of the buying process and the human connection in my dealings with Three Chairs should be the standard.
