Friday, July 07, 2006

Customer Service, the Up-Side

Home Depot sucks! Maybe you gathered that from the prior post. Here is how I resolved the issue, and it includes three businesses who provided great service, and only one of whom made a sale.

After the disaster at Home Depot, I headed the local lumber yard, Bridgeport Lumber. They could not have been nicer. The clerk knew exactly what I wanted, but said that they would have to order it. He suggested a flooring company. I bought some needed sandpaper, and left. Gelb's Flooring was my nest stoop. The nice woman clerk also knew what I wanted, but said that it would be a special order, would take a week, and would be a 96 inch strip. (I needed less than 36 inches.) She suggested (bless her heart) that I go to Barnum Hardware.

Down the street I drove to Barnum Hardware. Sure enough, they had bins of various kinds of oak reducer strips in varying styles. I was a happy camper. I have done business with Barnum Hardware before, and they could not have been nicer.

Brian's room is almost done. The carpeting is down, I sealed the reducer strip last night and will glue it in tonight (as well as trimming the door to fit). Just some touch up paint, and the trim on the door. Photo progress is shown in the set on Flickr (if you care). That site is subject to additions over the next several days.

Back to customer service philosophy which started this tirade. A new to me blog, Blog About Libraries, has a great post on 20 points on excellent library customer service. [And Michelle Boulle (aka Jane) picked up on it and reminded me to add those links here. She is right, of course.] But the personal stories help to remind us why it is important.

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