I’m beginning to wonder if my second calling in life should be more formal: that of business consultant in the field of customer service.
It seems that wherever I go I notice two things. 1) Businesses complaining about profitability. 2) Customer service incidents that drive customers away.
Tonight’s story has me as passenger, while my friend tries to fill up his tire with air after going to the nearest gas station. In this case, Sunoco in Ashburn Village scored in the location category, and by its car wash station, it had a coin operated compressed air station.
My friend plunked in 75 cents to start the machine, to which an LED turned on indicating that not only was the machine suddenly out of service, but that it had swallowed his money as well.
Naturally, he drove around to the cashier to ask for his money back.
And here begins the lesson, Sunoco.
The correct response should have been to service the machine, activate it remotely, or hand back the 75 cents with profuse apologies. Any of those remedies would have been perfect and cost Sunoco nothing.
Instead, this happened.
The cashier retorted that it wasn’t the company’s problem, that he needed to call the service number on the machine. Thus, Sunoco effectively took my friend for 75 cents.
Now, to you or me, perhaps 75 cents isn’t worth a quibble over. And, discounting the inconvenience of having to drudge up more quarters, there’s a significant point that’s about to be made.
By not doing any of the good customer service solutions previously mentioned, it creates the impression that 75 cents is too great a sum of money for Sunoco to part with. And, by not placing an Out of Order sign on the machine, it perhaps further conveys maligned intent to steal from others.
The point to be made is one of lasting customer impressions. Because while Sunoco may have made 75 cents that evening, my friend refused to fill up there. And, as other people were in the car, we couldn’t believe how shitty Sunoco treated him. Do you think we’ll be filling up there? How many times will it be that much harder to simply use the Shell station up the street about a minute and a half away? And, how many people do you think this story will be told to?
While it might not make a huge dent in Sunoco’s pockets, and there certainly is no organized boycott, it serves as a good example of lost revenues. Especially when after filling up, we usually go inside and grab snacks and drinks. And, of course, that didn’t happen either.
What really struck home was as we were thinking about it, having filled up and gotten free air at the Shell station, that Sunoco tried to deny the air pump was actually theirs. The service number provided isn’t for customer refunds, it’s for getting the device fixed.
We’ll let you make the decision. Is this a Sunoco air pump? Do you see any Sunoco stickers on it? Oh, more than one? Thought so.
And of course, by spreading the story, others (like me) won’t fill up there either.