Have You Experienced Excellence As the Customer?

Behavioral economics, food, quotes 1 Minute

Wynne and I recently exchanged stories of great customer service we have received at ─where else?─ Costco. And that reminded me of a splendid experience my husband and I had as customers. First, a disclaimer: we are not affiliated in any way with Viatmix. Now I can tell our Viatmix story.

The quote "Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well." from John W. Gardner

We love our Viatmix, and have used it happily until one day a scary burning electrical came from it when we turned it on. Needless to say, we immediately turned it off. But then what? We pulled up the number for customer service, and steeled ourselves for one of those endlessly frustrating discussions with a customer service agent who just wants to get rid of you as quickly as possible after reading a script, without a care about whether your anguish has been soothed and your problem resolved. But not before asking “is there anything else I can help you with”, after providing zero help with the issue you called about. Sounds familiar?

Not this time. A friendly gentleman answered our call, asked us 2 (two) questions about what happened and said that they’ll send us another carafe (the top part that goes on the base where the motor is) at no charge to us. Not even shipping. WOW! We were awed at that experience. But wait! There’s more. The following day, we turned on the Vitamix again, just to see. Really, just to smell. And much to our surprise, there was no smell. We immediately called Vitamix back and reported that the issue seems to have been resolved, and that they don’t need to send us anything. Guess what they said? Better safe than sorry, just use the new one, and don’t even return the old one. We clarified, the agent was adamant.

We had to pick each other’s jaws from the floor and have become net promoters for Viatmix since that day. No, we’re still not affiliated with them, but they had us at that customer service, and, yes, at the great quality of the product. Again. Not affiliated with them. It was just that spectacular of an experience.

Have you had a magnificent customer experience as well that you can share with us?

Published by Endless Weekend

This is the story of our Endless Weekend. For a combined five-ish decades we dealt with the usual high tech rat race: alarms, cubicles/hobbit holes, TPS reports, productivity indicators/red lab coats. It was a good run (though Dilbert is more accurate than not), but it was all … Work Days, Week Days vs. Week Ends. No more Week Days. In the summer of 2019, we, husband and wife in our 40s, decided to embark on an Endless Weekend (read: early retirement). Come share our journey, it starts here.

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65 thoughts on “Have You Experienced Excellence As the Customer?”

  1. Without going into too much detail, my parents experienced an issue with their long term care insurer. I emailed at 9am and had answer by 916. That being said, I had had such a bad experience before, I think the insurer is afraid of me. Does that count?

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    1. That actually counts x2! Not פonly did you get INCREDIBLE customer service from one of the toughest nuts to crack (wait until I share some of my experiences…), but you may have “scared” them into submission! Teach me, Obi Wan, please?

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      1. When I first had trouble last year, I sent an email to the top five people in the company listing how they were failing their clientele….

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  2. I recently purchased a new version of a program I use. I’ve had trouble importing the old info into the new program and so far the email support has been prompt and helpful.

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    1. Sadly, it does seem like it’s getting rarer, but some companies do it sooo well, like Vitamix.

      🤣 No, Vitamix is a high-powered, self-cleaning blender. What do I mean?
      High-powered meaning it’ll blend completely frozen bananas, and when you blend strawberries, the seeds will not get stuck in your teeth, the seeds have been pulverized 😁
      Self-cleaning meaning: you blend soap water, and it cleans itself! That means that you can actually use it frequently since there’s little pain involved in cleaning it. And no danger. The blades are thick, so if you grab them from any direction, they won’t cut through your skin.

      Did I already say Vitamix was awesome? 🤓 and, no, we’re still not affiliated with them!

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    1. SO well! They are an amazing company, and we loved our Vitamix: past tense since we have to get a new one: ours, all of the sudden, decided it’s had enough. But they are absolutely worth it!

      What kind of things do you make most often in your Vitamix?

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      1. Just Smoothies and Salsa. I’ve never tried anything else like soup. When we were young we had gone to the fair and saw a demo of one and the guy made soup. We wanted one right then and there, but we were poor newlyweds then. We were so excited when we finally bought one. It’s pretty old now close to 25 years old if not slightly older!

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        1. It took us a couple of years of seeing those demos at Costco before getting ours, I get that completely!

          What model do you have?

          Salsa sounds INTERESTING: we love salsa, but have struggled to make it… Is there a recipe you might share?

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          1. Oh gosh, lemme look. I’ve never looked at the model He-man bought.
            I’ll ask He-Man if he’ll share the recipe. He got it from a woman he worked with ages ago. I don’t know if he was sworn to secrecy or not. It’s sooooo good!
            Hold please….

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          5. He-Man/ Poppa makes it too spicy for him yet, but he’s getting there! 😀
            I just got home…lemme go pull out our Vitamix…hold please….It’s a 5200, so not as old as I thought it was but, still going strong…knock on wood!

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          6. I’m a mild/medium fan, so I get it 🙂

            We have (had) a 5200 and love it: the taller containers make more sense, we think, than the shorter/wider ones that may fit under a cabinet but “vortex” less well. We’re struggling with what to get next. We’re thinking V1200 or the A3500, but these are clearly monumental decisions that require much research 🧐 🙃

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          8. Tell me more about that? I thought that the dry grain container was to make flour out of grain? We use a mixer for dough (which has many parts to clean manually, and many steps to do manually) because home bought bread >> store bought bread, but if there’s a Vitamix for that, PLEASE tell us more!

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          10. You had me at “oat bread”: tell me more, please?

            The idea of making dough in the Vitamix is intriguing: but what is it like to clean? Does it require a lot of manual scrubbing? Our mixer bowl certainly does, and it’s wide and deep and has no blades attached to it 😉

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          11. I haven’t read much about it being a pain to clean but, imagine it might be. There’s the same self cleaning method mentioned, and for sticky stuff like dough and nut butters to use their long handled spatula to get out the stuff under the blades first then do the self clean.

            The Oat Bread is delicious. lemme grab the recipe…please hold…

            It’s a Lora Brody and Millie Apter recipe from their Bread Machine Baking book.
            About this loaf she/they say,
            ” This small, crusty, fragrant, uncomplicated loaf is a great way to start your day. It makes superb toast and terrific sandwich bread.”

            I can say a resounding YES! to both those claims.

            There are two different recipes based on the machine one has. I’ll give you the recipe that has the most machines listed, 8 of them.

            3/4 cup plus 3 TBS water
            1 TBS butter, margarine, or vegetable oil
            1 TBS molasses
            1 TBS brown sugar
            1 tsp salt
            3/4 cup quick cooking oats
            2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
            2 tsp yeast.

            Place all the ingredients in your machine, program for bread, Whole Wheat, Wheat, Basic Wheat, Whole Wheat/Multigrain, or Wheat and press start.

            Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes if baking in your own loaf pan. Turn out of pans and bake 10 minutes more. Remove from oven and cool on rack.
            My Note: Baking in the oven is my preferred method for baking my loaves.

            I had a Large Oster machine and my note to self is- If baking in machine use Light setting.

            If you try it let me know how you like it. 😀

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  5. I love this post, EW! So fun to highlight what companies do right! I bought a mask/snorkel from Amazon and the first time out my daughter lost the little clear piece of mouthpiece. I contacted the company to see how I could buy a new one – and they sent me a complete new set for free!

    Thanks for getting us to focus on the raves instead of just our rants!!

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    1. Omg, how awesome is that?! What a fantastic story. That’s how we become net promoters, and all in all, it’s an inexpensive investment relative to the cost of advertising, and with much more profound and lasting impact. LOVE it!

      And you know who prompted this raving-fest? 🫵 Thank you for sharing your positivity, it’s infectious!

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  6. I have had exceptional customer service here and there during my life. Overall, I have had decent customer service but some experiences stand out. Chewy, where I get most of my pet food, is exceptional. I had a big order with multiple cases of cat food and one case had maggots crawling around in it. It was probably only one can that had a problem but I didn’t feel like getting that up close and personal with the maggots. Instead of replacing the one case, Chewy replaced the entire order. And left me with the cases that had no problem, said I could donate them or use them as I desired. More recently, when I’ve written a review noting my picky cats didn’t like a particular product, even without my asking, they’ve refunded that product. They truly want their customers to be happy.

    p.s., I want a Vitamix. Perhaps someday.

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    1. Whoa! How great are they? I once read that when customers get in touch with Chewy on the sad occasions of a pet dying, Chewy employees, of course, fulfill their requests, will sit with them for a long time, encouraging them to talk about their loss, and will send a huge bouquet of flowers to the “humans” with a personalized, touching note.

      We’ve not had the occasion to do business with them, but we would if we were in the market: thank you for sharing a completely awesome story about a clearly spectacular company!

      And we’re in the market for a new Vitamix, too. Ours decided it’s had enough 😳 But we will be getting another one: they’re worth it!

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  8. I love when that happens (which is all too rare). Funny how we are gobsmaked at good service, and often take bad service in stride. I followed a Facebook page for a while that chronicled a story of three cats who took turns sitting on a Vitamix box (“The One True Box”) continually so their owners couldn’t get their new blended out. It went on for a couple of months and Vitamix got in on the joke and even sent them another blender. It was so funny and made me appreciate the company.

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    1. Omg, that’s completely awesome, I’m going to have to check it out.

      And you’re right: I think this is why I was so awed by the experience. We expected one of those (from your internet provider) please-reset-your-router-and-call-after, hoping that we’ll be directed to another agent after the reset and even though this incident happened more than 10 years ago, it’s fresh in my mind. And then I run around and tell it to everyone … Several people at work purchased a Vitamix after I raved about it 🙂 Don’t these companies know the value of exceptional customer service?

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  9. It is great to hear that some companies still have integrity! I ordered several t-shirts from America and they were shipped to Australia, however, they were way too big due to sizing descrepancies between Australia and US and when I contacted the company they sent out smaller sizes at no cost saying keep the larger ones! (It was too costly to ship them back and they didn’t expect me to foot the cost of returning them). Fantastic!
    But your story reminds me of the fallibility of the customer. We purchased a new hand mixer for making cakes. The device turned itself on and off intermittently – without us changing any controls. When we returned it the lady at the counter tested it and it worked fine. I explained it was an intermittent problem and so she happily exchanged it for a new item. When we got back home, the replacement mixer did the same thing – we thought that was crazy so checked the powerpoint with another device – (it was a new home) and guess what it was the power-point in the wall that had a fault, not the mixer at all! We were embarrassed that we had not thought of that and immediately blamed the appliance!

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    1. What a truly fantastic story! And I bet you told and re-told this story to enough friends who potentially became customers to make it worth their while (not that I’m saying that that’s why they did it…)!

      That is a funny story! 🙂 But what are the chances that the power-point would be at fault? Like Occam’s Razor points to: all things being the same, we go with the simplest explanation?

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      1. I can’t say that I influenced anyone to but Tshirts with Norwegian motors but you are spot on with Occams Razor. We should have looked at it more simply. It appears we might be conditioned to think the appliance is faulty because they so often fail and warranties are short. But it may not always be correct.

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    1. Thanks 🙂 I’ve been wanting to share something completely different with you… Do you remember the adorable little boy from the movie Jerry Maguire?

      Guess what he’s up to nowadays? (Hint: it rhymes with itsu 🙂 )

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  11. That is amazing! And I also agree about Costco; they go above and beyond when it comes to customer service.
    I’ve had many good Customer Service interactions over the years, but the one that happened most recently was with the outdoor furniture we ordered. It was SUPER expensive, but it has a crazy warranty and I know we will have it at least 10 years, maybe more. One of the pieces had a slight minor damage on the back. I called and sent a photo, and they said they would send me another piece and donate the damaged one. I was floored. They sell that piece for $1450, so I wasn’t expecting that.
    I’ve thought about investing in a Vitamix over the years, but just didn’t feel like I would use it enough.

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    1. Your story is not good: it’s AWESOME! I love that they behaved like this and that the Vitamix story wasn’t unique (and let me tell you, it didn’t cost even close to half of your outdoor furniture 🙂 ).

      It sort of makes you believe in humanity again, no?

      BTW, it took us a couple of years of going to the Vitamix demos whenever they had them at Costco and chatting with the Vitamix demo people who are extremely friendly and rank negative in the pushy-ness scale. We thought the same about not getting enough use out of it. We were wrong. I’m not affiliated with Vitamix, but I did talk several colleagues into getting one, too, just by raving on the things we’ve made with it.

      Made: it broke just after I posted this 🙂 We’re now looking for a new one!

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  12. I had to deal with my son’s insurance carrier…it’s a long, boring story. The first few people I dealt with were…well, I won’t say what they were on your site. After that, I’d had enough. I Googled the head honchos of the company, got in touch with one of the VP’s listed, explained the situation and told her about the runaround I was getting (she was a mother, too, so she understood.) She then had her “go to” person (another woman) to handle our situation. I fell in love with this go-to woman so much so that I sent her a baby shower gift (she was expecting!) I’ve never had such great service before or since! Thank goodness there are still caring humans in customer service out there! Sometimes you’ve just got to dig deep to find them. Mona

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    1. I didn’t just LIKE your experience, I LOVE it, thank you so much for sharing it! My favorite part was that you sent her a baby shower gift. That is so amazingly thoughtful and kind of you.

      In my experience, customer-facing folks rarely get a good word. Here’s an example from Costco: before the pandemic, we once chatted with a sample lady who educated us on a product we stopped buying because one of the ingredients they USED to have in it was suspected of causing stomach irritation. Who needs that? We never went back to reading the ingredient list, but this lady was wonderful, told us all about the history of the product and that ingredients, and we started to buy it again! I was so taken with her that I asked at the front desk to talk to the person in charge of the sample people. When that lady came to me, I could tell she was bracing for a “beat down.” I started raving about this sample lady and her jaw dropped. Clearly all she ever heard was complaints. Glad I made her day 🙂

      Thank you for your story, I can’t tell you how much it cheered me up (and this week I feel I need some cheering up) — THANK YOU! ❤

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      1. Sure. I sent an invitation to an extended family gathering this summer, she attended, and wrote me a thank you card that said it was easily the best day of the year for her. Little gestures can mean a lot to people as your post demonstrated.

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  14. I’m glad you are mentioning good customer service experiences. They happen but get lost, people like to be victims I guess. As for a good one, we went to an outdoor furniture store. I dreaded going because the place is known for upselling. Anyhow we walked in, lucked upon a sales guy who was a high school science teacher working part-time in the store on weekends. I told him what we wanted, he took us straight to it, didn’t try to upsell us, then went on to tell where to buy something else we needed that the store didn’t carry. He was a delight. I bless him often when I sit down at the bistro table of my dreams.

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    1. First things first: it’s great to see you, Ally! I’m so glad you’re back ❤

      That’s a terrific observation! Is it because so many people like to play victims that we put up with bad service? It didn’t occur to me!

      I love your story! Years and years and years ago, when we bought our current car, we went to the dealership of the previous car and for the first time ever, the salesperson… get this: tried to DOWNSELL us significantly. We didn’t go for it, but I was awed by him 🙂

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