Now I could add some stories about poor service at restaurants, such as the recent experience we had at Ruby Tuesday’s on Manor St. in Lancaster. But I won’t go there since those experiences are far too common and we’ve all had them. But here’s another customer service story. There is a company in Lancaster that I have dealt with for about 25 years with both school district and Awana business. Until a month ago they were hard to get to since they were downtown and had no parking. They seldom got my orders done in time and seldom contacted me, as promised, when they were done. I learned to expect that and planned accordingly. So why did I keep dealing with them? Mainly because they were the only business locally who could provide the services I needed. And after that many years they knew what I needed. Well a few months ago they moved to a much more convenient location that includes two parking spots. So on June 28 I took an order to them which I needed rather quickly. I had hoped to have it within a week. I told them that and the boss replied that it would be a little over a week since she was going on vacation. I replied that this would still be fine. Then 15 days later I received a telephone message that they weren’t done yet but would have it ready on day 18. Based on past experience, I waited until day 19 and stopped by. Guess what? The order wasn’t done. They apologized and said that it would be delivered the next day, day 20. So I waited. Another week went by and there was no delivery. On day 28 I called to find out what the hold up was. I was told that they were finishing my order and that it would be delivered to me within the hour. Well three hours later it was delivered. Mission accomplished and a job that should have taken 7 days at most finally made it in 28 days. How does a company stay in business with customer service like that? I guess the fact that the family has been in business locally for about 50 years might be part of it. But I guess the real reason is that there is no competitor and because there is not a large profit margin in this business, nobody will risk trying to provide competition. And the folks that I deal with there are very kind, friendly, apologetic and try to be accommodating. I do enjoy talking to them. So I guess I just continue to overlook the customer service and the disorganized business practices and keep giving them my business. And there is really nothing to be gained in complaining since you just hurt your Christian testimony and you also risk the service getting poorer or even their refusing to service you. What else can one do? However, I still find it very hard to understand why, in times of a very poor economy, merchants don’t give reliable customer service. Maybe that is one of the reasons our economy has sunk so badly.
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