How Not to Treat Your Customer

26Jul08

I’ve been apartment hunting. And re-reading The Dip by Seth Godin, where he implores everyone to be the best in the world at what they do. For a certain apartment complex, their world is “downtown L.A. apartment seekers looking for a clean, comfortable new home”. For the said apartment seekers, their world also includes “that doesn’t neglect me, that makes me feel like a unique snowflake”.

I’m not one of those people that complains at restaurants, anywhere really. But e-mail is different. There’s a time stamp and a record and reminder why one should be annoyed. I’m sure I am being Googled anyways, trying to figure out who this prick is. Hi, Leasing Office. Here’s that e-mail I just wrote you.

Hi Jesse,

I am a young professional working in the area, looking for an apartment with a Loyola law student roommate. As of today, I have yet to sign a lease downtown, though it is imperative that I do by August, and was really interested in looking into Bixel at Fifth as a possible destination. I received an e-mail about an hour ago with the leasing information that I formerly requested. But therein lies the problem: I asked for said brochure in early June.

My experience with downtown L.A. apartments, so far, has been near disastrous. I’m certain a lot of effort and work goes into opening up a new complex for moneyed, young urbanites, but you might expect a more prompt response than a month and a half later. I’m not writing to get anyone in your office in trouble. But when I get an e-mail about a “follow-up” e-mail, it’s almost insulting. It’s one thing to get that kind of service from someone at McDonald’s. It’s another thing when you’re thinking about moving in next door.

I’m still apartment-less, but I’m writing in hopes that none of your customers have a similar experience as me. It wasn’t so bad, really, because I completely forgot about it. Similar to what your office did with me. I would still possibly look into moving into Bixel at Fifth in the future. I’m sure it was just a simple mistake, and I hope that my e-mail can only help serve as a minor lesson. Thank you for your consideration.

Best,
Shawn Shahani

If you’re not trying to be the best in the world, then you’re not trying hard enough. I used to work at my family’s car wash, vacuuming dirty vehicles for 10 hours straight. Easily the worst job I’m ever going to have. Not exactly easy either. But I remember thinking that there could be one of those hidden cameras from a local news station in any of these things. I knew it was a small chance, but I didn’t want to relax for one second because it could mean the ruin of the business. And I didn’t want to disappoint the customer when they got their car.

The above sounds trivial, but it’s an idea—that paranoia—that should resonate with every business in the entire world: Seek anything less than perfection and your customers will notice. I sure as hell did.

Filed under: I Had a Bad Experience   |  6 Comments
Tags: bixel at fifth, business, customers, marketing, seth godin