501 Miles
On this blog, I try to keep things like 29.5% of South Africa - positive. So although I’ve written a couple of rant stories about Servistar and of course Telkom, I’ll balance it out with a story like this. A story of someone who went the extra mile….
This story is the proverbial silver lining on the cloud of crap South African customer service.
I’d like to hereby award 100 Llama points to the owner of the Mr Video branch on Rink Street, Port Elizabeth. Unfortunately I didn’t get his name, but this guy re-established my faith in old school customer service.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but when you’re hiring a video, you’re not exactly expecting to be greeted by an over-zealous sales rep asking if there’s anything he can do to help. Basically, you walk in, choose your DVD and you’re outta there. No one expects to be pampered when they get a video. Its a quick and painless operation.
However, the owner of the Mr Video in Rink Street Port Elizabeth went out of his way to make a happy customer out of me…and it worked. Clearly. I arrived and asked to set up a new membership, which I did. He confirmed my cell number and then proceeded to offer me something out of the ordinary: A tour of the video store. I almost instinctively turned it down, not wanting to spend unnecessary time in the store, but I accepted. Mr Video then proceeded to walk me around his store and show me the various sections, the costs of each sections and explain their weekly specials.
Now how about that huh?
When last has someone from a video store (!) treated you like that? I dare say never! It was a first for me and I doubt you guys have had a similar experience.
Sure its just one guy in a sea of apapathy, but its guys like this that occasionally restore faith in good-old traditional customer service.
Yay for Mr Video