Chewed Out

I have been really fortunate to not have any customer service nightmares to this point in my sales career, but yesterday was a doozie. I had a call from a customer about three weeks ago wanting to order a bike for her son's birthday that we no longer had in stock. I tracked one down at one of our other stores, had it sent to us and when she called a little over a week ago to confirm that it was there, everything looked rosy.

Yesterday morning, she showed up to pick up the bike. The only problem was, we no longer had it. I don't know what happened, but the bike that I ordered for her got sold to somebody else. I don't know whether it was intentional or accidental, but I got to deal with one very upset customer as a result. She had taken the day off from work to come pick up the bike that she had ordered and called to confirm and there was no way for us to send it home with her that day.

She was teary eyed, shaking and asked to talk to a manager. I called Jen over and we tried to move on to the solution side of the problem, but the customer needed time to vent and the two of us were the nearest targets. She was absolutely justified in her anger. I don't blame her a bit for being upset because it was definitely our screw up.

Jen and I offered the best solution scenarios that we could which included trying to order the bike again (knowing it would probably arrive too late) and substituting another bike at the same price which normally we sell for $80 more. After she talked to her husband on the phone, she settled on the replacement bike. I tried talking her into one frame size that I think would be better for her son right now, but that he would outgrow in about three years, but she opted for the next size up which I don't even think the kid will be able to ride. I was not going to argue with her about it, but told her that I would be happy to order the original bike just in case he doesn't like or doesn't fit the one she took home. She declined. After I helped her load the bike, I told her to give me a call if there was anything else I could do for her. I expect I'll probably hear from her soon if her son can't ride the bike because it's too big.

I pretty much expended all of my energy for the day on that one disaster and it wasn't even 11:00 yet. I spent a little time trying to see if I could figure out where the original bike had gone and who had sold it, but wasn't able to make any progress so I decided I just needed to let it go. Hopefully, that never happens to me again.