Growth and scale are typically the enemy of great, personal customer service--except in this case.
Courtesy Company
Edward Wimmer, co-owner of Road ID.
One of the first casualties of scale tends to be customer service: What once was personal becomes anything but as you add processes, systems, and people to your operation.
And when that happens, it's not unusual to find someone trashing a company's product and service on a major forum.
What is unusual is when almost 200 customers respond forcefully to that comment.
Here's another in my series in which I choose a topic, pick someone smarter than me, and we trade emails.
This time, I talked to Edward Wimmer, co-owner of Road ID, a company that custom manufactures personal-identification gear for fitness and outdoor enthusiasts, kids, and people with special needs. (Think of a Road ID as a cross between a military dog tag and a medical alert, except a lot cooler.)
Quick disclosure: Everyone in my family has one. Or two.
Here's my premise: Growth and scale are the enemy of outstanding, personal service.
Jeff: Let's start with the thread on bikeforum.net. Seeing detailed criticism about your product on a popular forum had to suck. (Readers: Here's a link to the thread.)
Edward: I read it and felt horrible, because it was completely different from how we do things. Then I started reading the eight pages of comments, and what followed was nothing short of remarkable. Our customers defended us, said "dude, you've got it all wrong, if you have a problem, they'll take care of you..." It blew my mind our customers would come to our aid in that way. Maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised. The way we do business does inspire our customers and create evangelists.
Now we like to say our customers would show up to a fistfight--on our behalf--if we asked them to.
Jeff: I might not show up, but then again I'm kind of a sissy.
You've averaged 50% year-over-year revenue growth for nine years yet maintained a service level that generates that kind of response to criticism. What's the secret?
Edward: I wish I could tell you we have a secret sauce, but it really isn't hard. It's easy. We do have systems, but they are based on common sense and how we would want to be treated.
Say you call a large company: You enter an automated phone system, press a bunch of numbers intended to theoretically "better help us serve you..." but that process is designed to make it easier for the company, not for the customer.
When customers call, they hear me say: "Thank you for calling Road ID. We are routing your call to a real person as I speak, so just hang out for a second and someone will be right with you."
We would want to talk to a real person, so that's what we do.
Jeff: You take that approach farther than most companies do and frankly farther than I might. For example, if a customer makes a mistake on their ID, you'll replace it for a nominal fee. And that's even after making it really easy for people to see what they'll get, because they can create and review their IDs onscreen. I know companies that see it as a bonus when customers make mistakes on personalized products, because that can turn one sale into two.
Edward: I realize most customers would understand, if they made the mistake, that they would have to pay full price for a new ID; because it's personalized, it's not like they can return the ID and we can sell it to someone else.
We let our employees make the right decisions. Maybe it's a refund, and we let the customer keep the product. Maybe something didn't come out right, and we overnight a replacement. In those cases, that individual order does result in a loss.
But the key is that every customer doesn't have to generate a positive ROI. If we generate a positive ROI on most of our customers, the bottom line takes care of itself. When you aren't trying to squeeze every nickel out of every transaction, it's easy to do the right thing for an individual customer.
Jeff: I get that concept if you make a mistake, but it's still a pretty bold approach to take when the customer makes the mistake. Again, it's not like they ordered the wrong size shirt and you can return it, unopened, to inventory.
Edward: If a customer has an issue, we'll take a loss if we need to. We'll solve their problems so they will want to shout from the proverbial rooftops about how they were treated at Road ID.
Jeff: When I need to call a company, I feel like I need to gather up all my evidence ahead of time so I can present my case. I think we're conditioned to see the complaint-resolution process as adversarial, because it often is.
Edward: That's why when companies just do a mediocre job of helping customers with a problem, people take note, and when you truly get it right, customers really start evangelizing your brand, your company, etc.
It shouldn't be a battle. You shouldn't need to get your "stuff" together to prove your case.
As a company, all you have to do is picture yourself on the other end of the line. What would you want to happen? Not what would you expect to happen, but what would you really want to happen?
If you order a shirt, wear it once, and then realize it's the wrong size, most people would expect the company to say, "Oh, no, sorry. You wore it, we can't take it back." You would love the company to say, "I'll replace it for free," or at least at a very low cost.
When something goes wrong, just take care of it. You might lose money on that one sale, but that customer will tell a lot of people about their experience. Plus, think about how much you spend acquiring a new customer. Doesn't it make sense to spend a little to keep a customer?
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