What I've Learned About Customer Complaints

My wonderful husband got me beautiful roses for Valentines' day, and he ordered them off of a very popular website. The order was fulfilled by a florist local to where I work. They were absolutely gorgeous when they arrived, and my husband was so pleased that finally his online order was exactly what he had wanted me to get (I sent him a phone picture). The men were extremely worried at work, and feeling inadequate, the women just loved them along with me.

However, the next morning when I arrived at work the next morning I had a couple of flopped over heads. The second morning (Friday) they had ALL flopped over. Cut flowers should last a week. Particularly when my darling husband spends a week's pay on them.

So, I e-mailed the local florist and explained my situation. I got a fairly tepid response "e-mail us a photo and we'll see if there is anything we can do for you". That was less of a customer service response than I was expecting. So, I called them and we talked for a few minutes and still there was a mildly tepid answer, so I said that I'd be happy to bring their flowers by on my way home. They mentioned again that they weren't sure they could do anything......

On my way over, I deliberated my response. I decided on this approach: I was going to give them the opportunity to fulfill my husbands order properly; but that I simply could not let my husband see these flowers. He would be so upset. I also decided that if I had to I would let them know that I was a wedding photographer, and if they decided that these flowers were good enough to represent their company, I'd let them know I'd have them up on my website by that evening along with the florist's name.

So, I walked into the store with my flowers, a pleasant smile on my face and "Hi, I'm Cara Vinson, we spoke on the phone how are you today?..... and the florist assistant at the desk was aghast. The owner walked out and he was Horrified! They both apologized profusely, and made me a new arrangement on the spot. The owner custom cut the stems right in front of me. The assistant and I chatted, and she thanked me for being so nice, and I told her that I wanted them to be able to show their suppliers what had been delivered as well.

I came home with the beautiful arrangement you see here, and this morning we do not have any bent heads. I believe that these will last the week.

I never shrink from letting a vendor know when their product or service is not up to their promises, and I take my promises to my clients very seriously. However, I always start out on the setting of 'nice'. Direct, yes. Most of the time I get exactly what I want with an extra helping of gratitude for niceness. My next setting is what I'd call Vulcan... Intractable logic, veiled threats, little emotion". Third setting : BITCH. I think I've used it twice. Once got someone fired.

My other thing is to talk to authority immediately. You're going to end up talking to them anywhere, so might as well save yourself some time. Once CV and I were at a restaurant and we were sitting in the bar at a table with plans to eat. People all around us were seated after us, and for 30 minutes we watched them order, get drinks, get food etc. Waiters and waitresses looked at us, but nobody spoke one word to us. I decided to wait the exact 30 minutes, then I went to the front and asked for the restaurant manager. I explained the situation, watched as the manager went to the bar and questioned every bartender and waitress fairly emphatically. She then came back to us and we were reseated elsewhere with our meal on the house. Our new waitress took gold star care of us. We tipped her what the cost of our ticket would have been, and asked her to make sure she told the bar group that we did. We thanked the manager for the meal on our way out.

So here's my humble lesson on Customer Complaints: expect what you pay for, be nice, know your response, speak to authority. Go forth and get your money's worth!