Poetic Justice – An Unhappy Customer’s Creative Call for Help

Wouldn’t it be nice if everything you did in your life worked out perfectly? Every decision you made is met with “thank you” notes, people talking about your brilliance, and more and more opportunities falling into your lap each day?

At WarmlyYours, we strive for a perfect customer service record but from time to time, we have a misstep and we’re not afraid to talk about it. Recently, we received a poem from one of our customers that came to us through the “Tell Your Story” feature of our website. It certainly got our attention! Here’s the poem:

Once upon a time, there was a warm floor.
It garned complements galore.
The thermostat, however broke, 
So to customer service I spoke. 
They assured me that replacement was sure. 
Shortly they would supply the cure.
 Much time has now lapsed.
 My faith on the verge of collapse.
 Georgia summer has allowed me a reprieve.
 But even there, the heat will eventually leave.
 My confidence is shaken.
 So this opportunity should be taken. 
To mend this oversite and set all things right
Would truly be a contractors delight.

Like any company, with the number of items we ship each day, there’s bound to be that occasional piece or part that malfunctions and our customers understand that, but the problem here was bigger than that. This customer, our poem writer, had called us for help and waited much too long for the replacement part.

When WarmlyYours President, Julia Billen, heard about this, she immediately made a phone call…not to one of our customer service representatives, or to someone else on the WarmlyYours staff to handle. She called our poem writer directly, listened to his story, and the replacement part was sent out that day. “We appreciate even our most spirited customers,” Billen said, “especially when they are so creative.”

At WarmlyYours, we love to hear the many stories that detail our extraordinary customer service, but stories of our failures are even more important to us for two reasons. First, our customers put their trust in us and when we don’t live up to that trust, we take it personally. Secondly, with our failures come some of the best learning experiences.

Each time we hear of a customer service failure like this, we first make it right with the customer. Then, we analyze it so that hopefully it doesn’t happen again. It’s one thing to say that you’re customer friendly, but at WarmlyYours we live it - even if the CEO herself is the one to make it right!

Vickie L. Wash, Esq.
Marketing Communications Manager

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