Customer Service: A Dying Artform

I don't know about you, but I have been unpleasantly surprised about the lack of Customer Service from companies, just in general. I get the feeling nowadays that they feel that they have your money, you have the product and if there are any issues or problems, it is because I have an issue or problem, not because of their product.

I've run into this everywhere. Athletic shops, clothing stores, electronic stores, online stores, household wares stores, race promoters...everywhere. It just makes me feel so disenchanted with companies general ability to assist their customers and help them to have a positive experience with their product.

On the flip side, I have encountered a few companies that do everything they can to make their customers happy and possibly assist in making their purchasing experience with them a  good and positive one. I had one of those moments this week and I wanted to share it with you.

As you may have read in past months, I am a subscriber to the monthly delivery box service StrideBox. They create boxes to be sent out monthly that includes products that are geared towards runners. It could be anything from pre- and post- fueling foods, mid-run fuels, hydration products and gadgets that make things easier for the runner (ie. lock laces, Klitch).

I normally blog about what is in the box each month and talk about the different products. The July box was centered on hydration, good thing too considering the record heat that has been sweeping the country. During my blogging of the box, I noted that there were 6 hydration items on the list and my bottle only contained 5 of the 6. No biggie, maybe you weren't supposed to get all 6 and only a mixture of a few of those. Cool, no big deal to me. I didn't write to StrideBox asking if this was a mistake or make any angry, fist pumping rhetoric on my blog about being cheated out of a sample. It was what it was and I didn't give it another thought. 

Until I got a parcel in the mail on Wednesday. I hadn't ordered anything, so this was an unexpected parcel. I looked on the outside and saw the return address as "StrideBox". I was confused, why would they be sending me anything. Then the lightbulb went off, did they read my blog entry? Is this the missing sample?

I opened the envelope and found this...

I. Was. Floored. I never expected them to send me the sample that had been missing out of my box, I didn't ask them if it had been a mistake, they just sent the sample because they wanted to make sure I had a positive experience with their company and it spoke VOLUMES to me. That is fantastic Customer Service, that is going above and beyond what is asked of them and it is just plain classy.  I immediately went to Twitter and sent a tweet thanking them for my mail delivery, giving them A+++ for their Customer Service. I think I would like to add another couple of +++'s, just for good measure.

Thank you StrideBox for sending me the sample that had been missing from my box without any prompting, it really was a wonderful surprise and just reaffirmed to me that there are still great companies out there that do care about the customer experience. You have a satisfied customer in me and I will continue to sing your praises to anyone and everyone I can. Just Keep Running indeed!