Your Employee’s Attitude Makes All The Difference

I will admit that most of the time when I have tire issues on my car I go to Walmart. Generally it is just because they are open.

But the other day I was out and noticed that I had a tire that was about half flat. I also realized I had NO cash on me. Not even the $.50 those air machines at gas stations need so I could add air to the tire.

Then I remembered there was a Discount Tire on my route home. I figured I would swing in and see if they would be willing to fill up my tire for me.

This became the start of a wonderful example of customer service.

And because of it they are getting TONS of word of mouth marketing out of it.

Unfortunately in today’s world more often than not when I walk into a business the employees tend to react like I am an inconvenience. And I have talked to a lot of people that get this same feeling. Well my experience at Discount Tire was the exact opposite.

I pulled up and parked my car. I hopped out and before I even made it to the door, one of their techs spotted me and asked “Are you just looking for air?”. I told him yes and he immediately smiled and said to pull right into the bay on the end.

Okay…he doesn’t seem put out at all. We are already ahead of the game. I should mention that they had customers. It is not like they were sitting there twiddling their thumbs.

So I pulled into the bay and they called one of the techs out to fill up my tire. The tech did not immediately grab the hose and start filling up my tire. Instead he squatted down next to the tire in question and checked it by eye. He ran his hands around it. And then announced that I had a nail in the tire. I was surprised. I thought I had a basic low tire. It turns out I had a nail in my tire and I was heading for a full on flat.

He them happily offered to fix it for me and he throws in “For Free”.

Okay so now not only am I not an inconvenience to begin with, now they are offering to solve my newly discovered problem for me for free. Am I a happy camper? You bet!

They asked me to go wait in their air conditioned lobby (This is Arizona after all and it was 110 at this time), while they fixed the tire. The gentleman in the lobby asked me for some basic information to add me to their computer.

He then asked me for an email address. He gave me a reason or rather a benefit to giving him this information. He told me that they would use it for occasional offers and to send me reminders on when to check my tires, when they might need to be rotated, etc.

So he is offering to remind me to take better care of my tires so they last longer. I am a busy person and my tires are not my priority, so if they want to send me a notice that reminds me to check them, cool.

So I pulled into their parking lot at 12:09. At 12:41 the tech came to the front door of the lobby and let me know that my car was ready. He told me that they had checked all of the tires and fixed the nail in the one. The rest of them were in very good shape.

Then he stood there and held the door for me. He walked me to my car (which was not in the bay, he had pulled around to right in front of the door for me. ) He thanked me for stopping in and told me to have a great rest of my day.

Now let me recap this for you…

I came in for free air. They happily greeted me. They immediately helped me. They found an issue I didn’t even know I had. They fixed that issue for free. They offered me a way to get ongoing help for free. The tech held the door for me. He pulled my car around so I didn’t have to go out into the dirty, hot bays. He thanked me for coming in. Never once did I feel like I was an inconvenience. Never once was I made to feel unwelcome. And they did it all in 30 minutes and I was back to my day.

AMAZING!

There is a bit more to the story (Their followup is amazing as well )

But I think you get the gist of my point. Next time I have a tire issue do you think I am going to Walmart? Do you think my daughter will go to Walmart? Do you think my friends will go to Walmart? Or do you think we will all make a point to go to Discount Tire? hmmmm….so was this free service they offered worth it to them? You BET!

Have you experienced great customer service that has made you switch companies? Good or Bad….
If so please share in the comments below. Tell us what companies have earned our trust and our business so we can all reward those businesses going out of their way to do a good job….