On Thursday, my wife and I had to put down our nearly 16 year old dog. It was a gut wrenching decision but she was suffering. As fate would have it, on Friday we receive a delivery of $200 worth of her prescription dog food. The deliveries were on a regular auto-ship schedule. Needless to say, the timing sucked.
We get her food from an online retailer Chewy.com. I called them, told the person about our situation and asked if there was a way to return the food. He offered condolences and immediately put in for a credit to our account. I then mentioned we still had a case leftover from the last shipment and he immediately credited that too. This is about 60 pounds worth of food shipped in single use boxes. I asked how I go about returning the food and was told not to bother. They suggested I donate it to a local animal shelter. Today we dropped it off at the local shelter and about an hour after we get home, we receive a bouquet of flowers from Chewy.com.
We were blown away. They didn't ask for proof of death. The didn't need to see proof of the remaining food from the other shipment. They didn't want proof that we donated the food. They just refunded us. Then they sent flowers with a Sunday delivery. My guess is that between the food and flowers they gave up $300.
Stupid or Genius?
Well, we have posted twice about this on Facebook. Approximately 200 people have already seen the story. Several of my friends responded that they will start ordering from Chewy too. One cousin, who just got a new puppy, signed up already as a result of my post.
Ken Blanchard's book "Raving Fans" as well as Carl Sewell's book "Customers for Life" discusses the benefits of this type of extreme service. It is so rarely expected these days that it doesn't take much to impress people. And impressed people share stories. Word of mouth is more valuable than any other type of advertising.
Carl Sewell makes the point that if you want to deliver outstanding service like this, you need to be build the cost of it into your business model. I'm sure despite the $300 hit Chewy.com just took on us, we were still a profitable customer for them over the years. We buy our parrot food from them still and if we ever get another fur baby, they will get that business too.
Another thought that crossed my mind is how much the customer service rep must enjoy his job. Instead of telling people "no" and reciting policy or contract, the person was able to treat me as a family member might (depending on the family). I sent the rep a glowing thank you. I bet he has drawers full.
We get her food from an online retailer Chewy.com. I called them, told the person about our situation and asked if there was a way to return the food. He offered condolences and immediately put in for a credit to our account. I then mentioned we still had a case leftover from the last shipment and he immediately credited that too. This is about 60 pounds worth of food shipped in single use boxes. I asked how I go about returning the food and was told not to bother. They suggested I donate it to a local animal shelter. Today we dropped it off at the local shelter and about an hour after we get home, we receive a bouquet of flowers from Chewy.com.
We were blown away. They didn't ask for proof of death. The didn't need to see proof of the remaining food from the other shipment. They didn't want proof that we donated the food. They just refunded us. Then they sent flowers with a Sunday delivery. My guess is that between the food and flowers they gave up $300.
Stupid or Genius?
Well, we have posted twice about this on Facebook. Approximately 200 people have already seen the story. Several of my friends responded that they will start ordering from Chewy too. One cousin, who just got a new puppy, signed up already as a result of my post.
Ken Blanchard's book "Raving Fans" as well as Carl Sewell's book "Customers for Life" discusses the benefits of this type of extreme service. It is so rarely expected these days that it doesn't take much to impress people. And impressed people share stories. Word of mouth is more valuable than any other type of advertising.
Carl Sewell makes the point that if you want to deliver outstanding service like this, you need to be build the cost of it into your business model. I'm sure despite the $300 hit Chewy.com just took on us, we were still a profitable customer for them over the years. We buy our parrot food from them still and if we ever get another fur baby, they will get that business too.
Another thought that crossed my mind is how much the customer service rep must enjoy his job. Instead of telling people "no" and reciting policy or contract, the person was able to treat me as a family member might (depending on the family). I sent the rep a glowing thank you. I bet he has drawers full.
