How we treat each other, especially your customers, like family, is mandatory - Soul of Innovation

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. This is Thomas Anglero, and, uh, I just had an experience about customer service that I cannot wait to share with you. So just hold on, um, this may be a bit of a rant, but I think we all have a lot to learn, not just from this incident, but the contrast of this incident versus what I experienced just a few days ago. Oh man, welcome to the Soul of Innovation.

This is gonna be a good one.

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. That's January 8th, 2018.

Customer service, let me tell you, man, am I trying to calm down. I just finished getting off a of a phone call, and I should not say the name of the company, it's disrespectful.

This company delivers internet services to my house through fiber, and I signed up for a package with the internet, fiber internet and a TV, an entire package together. Before Christmas, they sent an installer to the home, my home. He installed a new, uh, Home Central box, and he did not give me anything else. He said, wait in the mail, your TV decoder box for your new TV that will use all this 100— minimum 100 megabits of bandwidth is coming in the mail. So I waited till now. I called this fiber company, and the woman spent 20 minutes telling me how it's my fault for waiting this long. I told her never throughout the process was I trusted the company. Understand, trust. She tells me it's completely my fault, that this is a third-party company that comes to the house to install it, and that I should be aware of that, number one. Number two, that the day after I didn't receive the thing in the mail, that I should have called her immediately when the guy told me just wait, it'll come in the mail. So basically she's calling me an idiot. And here's the killer of it all, she never apologized. What would it have cost to apologize that the company that you hire, this third-party company that as I as a customer, I don't know that this person is a third-party company. I as a customer assume that this person works for your company. I don't get the right information from him. By the way, he was a very nice person when he came. He delivered excellent service and he was very polite. But from her, all I get is basically that I'm an idiot, I'm wrong, and that I should have called before And then she actually said, "Who waits till after Christmas to call?" Now she's definitely calling me an idiot. And never did she once say, "I'm sorry." All she said was, "There's a misunderstanding," which is a very impolite way of avoiding saying, "I'm sorry." Now here's the reason why I'm pissed off. Not because of this incident, it's because a few days ago I went to a restaurant. I went to a Chinese food restaurant.

And as soon as I approached the table, the owner of the restaurant, this man, greeted me before I got to the table, sat me down, asked me which table I wanted to sit at first of all, sat me down, welcomed me, asked me which language did I speak. I think he spoke at least 4 or 5 different languages, spoke to me in English, which is always fun. Told me some funny stories, served me, came back to me several times during the meal, which I enjoyed thoroughly, told me about the city I was in, told me about what's going on in his life, told me that the main meal I ordered, which he recommended and I ordered, was his wife's specialty, and that he personally told her and said, "Look out the kitchen," showed her that I was sitting here at the table and said, "You're making it for him." So she put a personal touch as she made that food just for me. And then he did something, I was still in shock.

Beautiful.

As I was finishing my meal, he walked by me smiling, told me another funny joke. Guy was funny. He left the restaurant, I was wondering, okay, I don't know where this guy's going. Came back a few minutes later, with an orange in his hand, stopped at my table, saw that I was about to be done. He placed an orange on a dish, on a serving plate, and placed the serving plate with the orange on my table and said, "This is for you." He left the restaurant, went to another store just to buy me an orange. Because that's the way he felt that that meal should be finished with. That's customer service. The impression he made on me is going to last me a lifetime. A positive impression. An impression really of love. I mean, he went well beyond being friendly. He made it personal when his wife went into the kitchen to cook me food for me. Now it's sounding like I visited his house, and that's the way he treated, as if I visit him in his house. And when he felt that he didn't have enough food for me, he went outside his house and actually bought food from his own pocket money so that I would be happy. And contrast that with this fiber internet company that for 20 minutes She used her energy and was persistent in making sure that she was clear that it was my fault, that, and I'm an idiot. What type of customer and loyalty do I have or don't have now to this fiber internet company? When are companies going to learn that you do not disrespect your customer who's paying you your salaries. The reason why you're able to go on vacation, the reason why your children look at you and smile at you come Christmas, because you had the money to buy them something. Where do you think this money comes from? It's another example of a company who's lost their perspective and take customers for granted and see customers as customers. They don't see them as human beings. Their employees are their customers. They don't see it that way. We're all people. We all want to be respected and taken care of. But the second, the moment we disrespect somebody, like what just happened to me— how long does it take when you disrespect someone for you to earn that respect back? You start at months, you don't start at minutes. It may even take years. This gentleman in the Chinese food restaurant, the owner, what he did in a few minutes, the impression he left with me, it's a beautiful impression that lasts for years. Interesting contrast. I think— oh, I know we've been seeing this for years.

We saw Zappos in the United States.

The CEO was absolutely frantic about customer service. Customer service. If the customer wants to, just say yes. Even if we lose money on the deal, just say yes. If the customer wants to return it, accept it, pay for the shipping, whatever. Zappos, number one customer service company, customer satisfaction company in the United States, valuations at over a billion, another unicorn. Before this expression unicorns came, they redefined and rewoke everybody up saying, we're not a customer, we're people.

2018, we have artificial intelligence all over the place coming, uh, intimidating people, so on and so on. You know what, you want to fight artificial intelligence?

Real simple. Focus on taking care of people. That's the answer.

This fiber company, as soon as my contract is done, I'm done.

I'm gone.

And as a blessing to them, I will continue to tell this story, not until my contract's done, but probably till I'm a very old man.

Thank you for reminding me that I'm not good enough for you being a person. And that you rather use your energy to make me feel like an idiot and not say the simple thing, the most important thing, because I'm human. I'm sorry, you couldn't do that. So I dedicate this podcast to you, to reminding me that you and I are the most important thing and that we have to treat each other with respect. It's not about the money. It's about each other, about taking care of ourselves, taking care of you. This is the Soul of Innovation podcast, a short one, but definitely laser-focused to the core of what's important today, and that is you being seen for you and taking care of you. Take care, go forth and spread beauty and light.

This is Thomas Anglero.

Till the next time.