One of the mysteries that we puzzle over at AlcoPro is why don’t some of our customers let us know when they have a problem with one of our products? Once in a while we learn that a customer had a problem with one of our products but never bothered to tell us about it. They just stop using the product, thinking that it’s defective. When we learn about these situations we always wonder why didn’t they pick up the phone and call us about the problem.
Our guess is that these customers don’t know that if they were to call us we would make every attempt to fix the problem to their satisfaction. They would get a real person on the phone (during our office hours) – not a voice mail system that says “please listen carefully as our menu options have changed.” We start by trouble-shooting the problem with the customer. We first try to determine if the trouble is a lack of understanding on how to correctly use the product. Once we rule out operator-related issues we move on to determining the specific nature of the problem. The reality is that despite our best efforts, once in a while something goes wrong with a product – whether it’s a bad part in a breath tester or a batch of drug test kits that is not responding appropriately. It’s not uncommon for us to learn about these problems from our customers. And it’s only when we learn about a problem that we can correct it. So not only can we address the needs of the customer who brings a problem to our attention, the customer does us a favor by enabling us to address any quality issues related to that product.
Our Goal? Your Satisfaction
After trouble-shooting the problem our goal is to satisfy the customer with a solution, and there is no one solution that fits every situation. Depending on the product and situation, the more common solutions we offer are to replace the product, repair the product, or we may offer a refund or credit. We leave it to the customer to tell us what will make them satisfied, and that’s what we’ll do if we reasonably can.
So when we come across a customer who had a problem with a product but didn’t tell us about it we think to ourselves “if only they knew that we would try our hardest to make them satisfied, they would have called us!”
In all fairness, maybe there are a few other reasons why a customer might not call to report a problem.
- They’ve had bad customer service experiences before so don’t have any faith that a phone call will result in a satisfactory solution. (That’s why we are writing this blog – to encourage you to try again!)
- They are so mild mannered they feel like they would be confronting us by pointing out the problem with our product. (We are pretty mild mannered ourselves so we understand, but we really do want to know about any problems.)
- They just don’t like to talk to strangers on the phone. (We have email and chat for those folks who prefer to type rather than talk.)
Let us hear from you! Do yourself, as well as our other customers and our staff, a favor and let us know if you ever have a problem with one of our products.