In spite of me...

Too many companies just don't make the connection between customer service and sales so it's up to customers to disconnect from them.

My son needed new tires on his car yesterday. (Literally - they were down to the wires) so we went to Pep Boys in Hialeah, which happens to be near his school. Now, his car is a 1988 Honda Civic with about a million miles on it. The car won't go past 70 mph so there is no need for high performance shoes for this thing. I just wanted something functional and cheap.

We walk into the Pep Boys and there is no one at the service counter but a man about my age with a boy about my son's age. They seemed to be in a similar situation but I think it may have been about a battery. There is no one on the other side of the counter so the father and son are staring at us as we walk in. A service rep comes out (not to help them) of the bay and goes to work on the computer at the opposite end of the counter from where they are standing. I assume they are being helped by someone else (I was right) and that he is about to help me (wrong!)

He doesn't acknowledge me at all. He goes to work on the computer while his counterpart is helping father & son and I am standing there feeling like the nerdy kid on prom night. Ten minutes pass before he acknowledges me and by now I am regretting ever having walked into this place. There is a BJ's Wholesale Club a block away. I can go there. I'm a member.

Finally, he acknowledges me. (Someone asked me to dance!) I tell him what I need and he tries to sell me tires that cost about as much as my son paid for the whole car. I tell him to do better. He says there is nothing cheaper. I ask about another size, perhaps a lower-profile tire. Suddenly, there is something closer to my budget. I am still resentful at how I was treated, but the kid is on a spare tire with another tire showing more metal than a camelot movie. This is about more than money. It's about my son's safety. Oh, and convenience; after all, I'm already here.

So I go for it.

Customer service lost because I allowed myself to be put in this situation.

But who really lost?

Will I ever return to this Pep Boys? No. Will I go to any Pep Boys? Possibly. Would I recommend Pep Boys? No. After all, why pay the premium price for Wal-Mart service when I can pay Wal-Mart prices for Wal-Mart service.

I guess we're even. No, not even. I'll come out ahead. I can find another auto parts store, but they'll never get me back as a customer. They'll spend a fortune trying to replace me and in this day and age where more people are using dealers and service stations, guys like me are harder to find. DIY fever may extend from the backyard to the driveway, but I doubt it's spread to what's on the driveway. I do my own oil changes and maintenance. I don't change my own tires because I can't. Otherwise, I would.

You work hard for your money. Anyone else who wants your money should work even harder for it.

Manners and Customer Service

We've all heard that having good manners is how we show people we care about them. If this is the case, then customer service is how businesses show their customers how much they care. The better the service, the more they care. We've become a fast food nation in more ways than one. Besides eating in our cars and obesity rates reaching ever higher, we've relaxed our standards. We have all spent so much time at McDonald's that we simply don't bat an eye when someone we are trying to give our money to treats us like an inconvenience.

So if fast food restaurants are the new low standard, what does it say about our expectations that they rake in billions every year. It says, "Standards? We don't need no stinkin' standards!"

Show your customers you care, by actually caring. The fast food giants spend millions every year telling us how much they love and appreciate us, and we spend billions every year giving them the opportunity to prove it's all a lie. And to show how offended we are, we come back. Hell hath no fury? I don't think so. We have no pride. Or, more correctly, no expectations.