Valerie Reeves is a successful businesswoman in Louisville, Kentucky.
Time to her is money and recently when she purchased a new clothes washer from a local merchant she did so expecting that if she had a problem it would be fixed quickly and to her satisfaction without a hassle.
Wrong!
It all started when Valerie contacted the seller which is billed as Louisville’s leading kitchen and home appliance dealer to get them to come to her home and repair a leak her new washer had developed.
She expected that they did their own repair work. Nope, it seems they like many dealers they contract it out. So the customer service representative at Bonnycastle, the seller of the washing machine, calls her back and gives her 15-minutes to get to her home to let the contract repairman into her home to fix the washer — bear in mind she has had no advance warning of this need.
So, she leaves her office downtown drives straight home (about a 15-minute drive) and 5-minutes from the house she gets a call again from the customer service rep asking how much longer. Valerie tells her she is 5-minutes away.
When Valerie gets home — you guessed it the “repairman” had already left saying that he “waited 15-minutes.” To say Valerie was upset would be an understatement. When she called Bonnycastle back they explained that because it was the end of the week they wouldn’t be able to get anyone out there. This did not meet Valerie’s customer service expectations. She asked Bonnycastle’s service rep for another repairman and they recommended Kenny’s Appliance Service.
By the way, we recommend him too, except Kenny you see was not “authorized” to the do the warranty repair work under Whirlpool’s contract with Bonnycastle – we later found out – but I get ahead of my story.
Valerie calls Kenny. He immediately answers the phone. He listens to the problem and says that “if you don’t object I can be there around 6 p.m.”
As Valerie said, “I will have tea and cookies for you if you will just come and get it fixed.”
Well, Kenny kept his word. He came, he saw, and he advised the pump had a leak. Then he found out he wasn’t authorized to fix it under warranty. Now remember that Kenny was recommended by Bonnycastle’s customer service representative.
Valerie is now pretty upset and rightfully so, not at Kenny of course, because he has fulfilled his obligation even cheerfully.
Bottom-line: it took Valerie Reeves insisting on talking to the owner of Bonnycastle and insisting that the repairs would be done promptly before final action was taken that evening to repair her new appliance that was still under warranty.
Morale of this story: no consumer should have to jump through the dozen or so hoops that Valerie Reeves did to get warranty service, or for that manner any other service.
Although we acknowledge that Bonnycastle did eventually resolve the problem for Valerie and to her satisfaction it wasn’t without a great deal of angst and frustration.
This protracted insistence by the consumer to get customer service is simply not acceptable in today’s competitive world.
We give Bonnycastle a passing grade but only because the owner got involved. We are sure they also learned a valuable lesson form all this and shared it with their customer service representatives.
However, this article is not about the lax approach to customer service it is about a small businessman named Kenny Evans and his focus on creating a memorable customer service experience.
Kenny’s Appliance Service will forever be recommended by Valerie Reeves to anyone who asks for prompt attention from an appliance serviceman because Mr. Evans was polite, prompt, courteous, and dependable.
Even though he was unable to fulfill the warranty obligations, he diagnosed the problem quickly, efficiently and fulfilled his commitments to his new customer.
Kenny says he services a wide variety of appliances and we believe he does and probably each time “exceeds the need.”
His website probably says it best though when he explains his mission —
To provide families and their businesses with the highest level of respect, honesty and service in the repair of their appliances with a complete commitment to their satisfaction.
Kenny, of “Kenny’s Appliance Service,” has been in the appliance service industry for more than twenty years. He has a strong commitment to making sure that the client is satisfied with the service that he provides. He believes in the “old fashioned” kind of service(sad it’s “old fashioned.”) He has helped clients carry in their groceries, babysat kids while mom or dad went out for a minute, plays with your dogs and remembers your name, your kids’ names (unless you have 10!,) your pets, and the appliances you have.
Most of his work has come to him by word of mouth and he has many customers who will not call anyone else. For that reason, we chose to put Kenny’s picture on every piece of material we could. That, and, because he has a friendly face! :o).
And being a good marketer you can find out more about his service at http://www.kennysappliance.com/
We highly recommend that if you live in the Louisville area that you contact him the next time you need appliance repair.
He sure did make a friend in Valerie Reeves and all because he was a man of his word.
We give Kenny’s Appliance Repair an A+ for memorable customer service.
Until next time.
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