Not all customer service is dead

I experienced some outstanding customer service this week, so much so that I wanted a record of it, so here it is.

As I was driving home, one of my tyres had a blow out. Thankfully I wasn’t far from home, or a service station. I pulled off the road (in front of someones driveway) to inspect what I initially thought was some kind of vehicle / wheel damage (perhaps I’d hit the curb while exiting a round-a-bout), but it turned out to be a very flat tyre.

Well, I wasn’t driving any further at this point or I’d risk damaging the wheel/rim (yep, it was that kind of blow out), so I only had one option really, change the tyre with the spare and get out of there, which I did. I went straight to the service station as it turned out the spare was also pretty flat, to pump up the flat spare tyre :-/ Unluckily for me, when I got there, the air pump was doing the opposite task (which I realised just in time) of letting air out, instead of pumping air in. I went inside to let the attendant know and then carefully drove my car about half a kilometre to another service station. This one had an air pump that worked.

With my wheels all pumped up (I decided to do them all), I drove around to my mechanic to see if they could assist with the flat tyre. Unfortunately, they could not. Silver lining, I discovered (in my ignorance) that they hadn’t been paying too much attention to my tyres / wheels at all when I took my vehicle to them for a service… They did, however, recommend someone who did deal in tyre repairs, which I paid a visit to next.

Honestly, as soon as I drove into the recommended parking lot, I took one look around, noticed way too many cars that looked like they’d been laid to permanent rest (including the vehicles up on hoists) turned around and got out of there. I decided to go to the more well known brand at the end of the road. They took my wheel, gave me a quote to replace the tyre (that I approved) and had my wheel ready to pickup the next day.

I was so impressed with their customer service and their communication (phone call and text) that when I picked up the wheel, I made an appointment to have all my wheels checked. They booked my car in the following day.

When I brought my car in, I waited in their customer lounge (playing my switch) while they checked my wheels, consulted with me on adjustments, fitted the wheel they replaced and rotated the existing wheels based on wear. All this despite me telling them when I first arrived, that I was happy to just get a whole fresh set of tyres. In the end, they recommended replacing the other three in 12 months / 10,000 - 20,000 Kms and… didn’t charge me a cent. I’d already paid for the replacement tyre the day before, so today they just did me a solid for free! I’m clearly going to return to this centre when my tyres are up for replacement, better still, next time my car needs a service… I may take it here too.

It turns out not all customer service is dead.

What are your thoughts?

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Let me be clear. I’m no expert on anything you’ve just read. I worked in IT for 22+ years, had something in the realm of a mid-life crisis and now I don’t work in IT any more. These are just my unfiltered thoughts on the topic. Take it with a grain of salt. I read, and I know things.