An Inside Look at a Company that Does It Best
It was 11 am local time in Fort Collins, Colorado. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
I had arrived the night before with my family to celebrate my aunt’s baby shower and if planning an event 900 miles away wasn’t stressful enough, I had just realized we were about 15 chairs short. The guests would be arriving in three hours and I was rushing to get all of the food and games set up and still needed to pick up the cake. I panicked a moment before realizing one of our customers, Best Rental, was only 3 miles away. Ah rental–what a wonderful industry!
My dad and I arrived at Best Rental and in minutes, they had the car loaded down with 15 chairs. We crossed the parking lot to their equipment side to say hi to the rest of the staff. Walking in, the smell of clean rubber, polished metal and sweet oil hit my nose–even in my 23 years of life growing up around rental stores, it’s still one of my favorite aromas. One of the staff greeted us and asked how he could help; we introduced ourselves and asked if we could help him instead.
“Oh, Wayne Harris with Point of Rental!” He said excitedly, “Hmm let me think… Everything is working fine… but is there a way to change only my terminal to not show the daily overview? I just prefer it without.”
“Of course,” my dad said. “All of those settings can be found under parameters. Here, let me get that set up for you.”
As we stood behind the counter hovering over his computer screen, a customer walked in fuming. It was hard not to listen into the conversation.
“Good morning, sir, how can I help you today?” the man behind the counter, Charles Burnette, asked eagerly.
“How can you help me?! Well, I rented a trencher for the day yesterday and there was a problem with it. You guys had to bring me another one and so I didn’t even use it the full day.” The man said aggravated.
“Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that, sir,” Charles replied genuinely. “What can I do to make this right?”
“Well… I mean it was just really frustrating… I mean it just stopped working…” The man stuttered, visibly taken aback by the response he received.
Clearly this guy was just trying to get around paying what he owed. He already had the equipment for the full day he rented it and then decided to come in four hours late after the store opened to argue about how they did him a disservice for bringing him a whole new one after close the previous day? Ridiculous!
“I can completely understand,” Charles encouraged. “That must be very frustrating! I want to make this right with you. What do you think is fair?”
“Well… uh… I don’t know. I mean it just stopped working, you know?” The man was clearly amazed at his calm and sympathetic response.
“Yes, sir, I understand. I want to make this right with you,” Charles repeated. “I really want to make sure you leave happy. How about I only charge you for 4 hours instead of the whole day and I will go ahead and throw the trailer in without any charge. Do you think that would be fair?”
“Yes! Uhh… I mean… yeah, I think that would be okay,” the man answered, obviously surprised of the genuine care he was receiving.
“Okay great, I will go ahead and take care of that for you,” Charles said. “Here is the revised contract. Thank you for working that out with me, sir. I hope you have a wonderful day and I look forward to working with you again.”
WOW. What an amazing example of customer service! It’s easy to forget that customer service isn’t necessarily about giving the customer what he deserves. It isn’t always about being fair; it’s about going above and beyond to make sure the customer is happy.
Later that day, we brought back the chairs after the event side was already closed. Charles was still at the store and immediately came out and brought the chairs inside for us. We thanked him as he walked away and he called over his shoulder, “I went ahead and took care of the order for you, don’t worry about paying anything!”
“Thank you so much!” I yelled back as I climbed into the car. I smiled and shook my head wondering how he ever made any money. I immediately realized that if I ever needed anything in Fort Collins, I would give Charles a call and I would recommend him to everyone I knew. The value he was gaining from cultivating long-term relationships was significantly greater than he would have from harvesting short-term profits.
Customer service isn’t a short-sided view of profit; it is about building lifelong customers–fostering an environment of trust and loyalty. Best Rental in Fort Collins provides an incredible level of customer service to everyone that walks through their doors. They go way over and beyond what is expected to deliver an exceptional customer experience and build customer relationships for life.
Best Rental made a lifelong customer with me and I am already looking forward to the next time I get to rent something from them–now THAT is amazing customer service.