Tag Archives: Quality Assurance

St. Clair Nissan revs up the standard for customer service

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Unlike many Nissan dealers these days, St. Clair Nissan is located downtown and occupies a smaller building space. My understanding is they are family-owned and operated. In my experience with car delarships, big dealerships can never seem to take care of problems in an affordable timely fashion, whereas St. Clair Nissan is always friendly, efficient, accommodating, and reasonably priced to their customers.

I distinctly remember a time when St. Clair Nissan helped me out more than any other car dealership ever could. When I was buying out the lease on my car, I had already moved uptown and decided I had such a great experience with St. Clair Nissan that I would try another Nissan dealership near my new house. The new dealership wanted $300 just to do the paperwork, so I went back to St. Clair and they completed the papers for $100. Given the time it took to do it, they likely didn’t make any money off of me; but they kept me as a happy customer, and they kept me coming back. Despite the fact that I no longer live down town, I still go out of my way to visit this location, as well as my preferred service garage (Portugal Auto Service at Dundas and Bathurst). I always go out of my way to tell all of my friends about their amazing customer service because they take such great care of me as a valued customer. The personalized customer experience really goes a long way.

St. Clair Nissan
3275 Dundas St. W.
Toronto, ON
416-762-7537

 

 

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Broil King is on fire!

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If you remember my blog from the other day, I wrote about the great customer service that I found at Dickson Home Hardware. Well, just recently Brandon (one of the great guys at the hardware store) was over at my house doing some minor repairs on my BBQ when he noticed that the cookbox was warped. As a direct result, the grills were sitting lower into the bottom of the BBQ than they should have been. Brandon said he would go back to the hardware store to order a new cook box for me, but I was a little shocked as I wasn’t expecting to shell out the money for a major repair or a new part. Naturally, I hesitated a bit as this would be pretty costly.

When Brandon sensed my hesitation, he told me not to worry since the Broil King Brand has a 25 year warranty on the cook box. I couldn’t believe it since my BBQ was over 9 years old! When the BBQ part arrived, I was pretty surprised to discover that they had sent me an entirely new BBQ with everything except the stand. Not only did Broil King stand behind their product, but they also exceeded my expectations and provided me with an outstanding customer service experience. In this day and age when most companies don’t take customers seriously, this was a pleasant turn of events that shot their customer service levels through the roof. Not to mention, they do make a great product that keeps their customers coming back!

Broil King
585 Kumpf Drive
Waterloo, ON
1-800-265-2150

 

 

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Pro Hardware, Pro Service

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On Avenue Road lies a small hardware store called Dickson Home Hardware. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of visiting this shop, they have two sides to their retail business; one that is centralized around hardware and another that is centralized around BBQs. I first visited Dickson Home Hardware 5 years ago when I was buying a friend a wedding present and I had a great experience. Despite the blizzard brewing in the middle of winter, I decided that I wanted to get my friend a lawn mower for his wedding so I started checking around for prices and models. I went to some of the big box stores in the area, saw a few I liked, and asked the manager about any discounts considering the current season and weather. I was flatly declined, so I checked out some of my other options before turning to Dickson Home Hardware. When I settled on Dickson Home Hardware, I was shown a few models and when I asked about the price the owner explained to me that he was unlikely to sell very many lawn mowers in the middle of winter, so he’d be able to cut $100 off the price before I even asked about any discounts.

Aside from this interaction keeping me coming back year after year, they continue to blow me away during every return visit with their excellent level of customer service. Dickson always has the hardware I am looking for even though they are a small store, and in the BBQ section they are all amazing and knowledgeable. When I was having a problem with my BBQ recently, they tried to walk me through it on the phone; and when I was unable to resolve the problem with them on the phone, instead of frustrating me they stopped by when they were in the area to fix it. Not only did they fix it, but they identified a problem which was under warranty. They have never ceased to amaze me and I have had a positive experience with them- each and every time. This just goes to show you that bigger isn’t always better when it comes to customer service.

Dickson Home Hardware
2028 Avenue Rd.
Toronto, ON
416-487-4029

 

 

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This ViBE’s got me in the groove!

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The first time I dropped my daughter, Talia, off at ViBE’s studio I thought I was seeing double. Marnie and Rena Schwartz, co-founders of ViBE Dance and Fitness Studio, one of the biggest dance studios in Toronto, also happen to be identical twins. Neither are new to the dance floor, having both been members of the Toronto Argonauts Dance Team and Toronto Raptors Dance Pack, as well as qualified dance teachers, choreographers, and experienced aerobic instructors. And if that’s not enough, they’re also Ontario certified teachers and kinesiologists,

ViBE was recommended to us by friends and now Talia attends a hip hop class regularly on Thursday nights. It’s an expansive studio with around 15 rooms, and is surprisingly pristine considering the number of kids filtering in and out the front door every hour, not to mention the sweat these dancers work up. But as ViBE’s motto goes, they’re there to “Sweat and Smile”. The place is packed on evenings and weekends, yet always runs smoothly, no kid getting lost in the crowd or not knowing where to go. I remember how shocked my wife was when one of the sisters approached her and told her how well Talia was doing, despite never having met my wife before. She then proceeded to approach all the other parents, knowing each kid by name, able to make an informed comment on their progress. They take the time to get to know the kids and parents so that at ViBE you’re not just another number to them- you’re valued customer. In addition, they truly want what’s best for the kids. They’re willing to accommodate with make-up classes and even made life easier on my wife and I, by allowing Talia to sit in on the class before hers, when she arrives early some weeks.

The opportunities seem boundless at ViBE, with some of the dancers being chosen to dance in the halftime shows at a Raptors games each year, while others are selected for professional roles in movies and live theatre. At the very least, there are the health benefits from dance as expounded by Marnie and Rena, “At ViBE, we believe that dance is a life skill where people will be dancing through life…..at play dates when they are young, at Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, Sweet Sixteens, at their wedding and at their 50th wedding anniversary! Dance has the ability to improve self confidence, self-esteem, and ultimately, dance makes a person feel good about themselves. We are fortunate to witness dancers of all ages, genders, and abilities enjoy the obvious physical and health benefits of dance but it is SO special to see dancers grow and become strong and confident people. At ViBE, we hope to inspire dancers to become the best that they can be through our fun and challenging classes and in our non-competitive high quality program.” I think that sums up their philosophy perfectly. It’s not about making good dancers at ViBE but about making good people, and this world can use as many good people as it can get.

ViBE Dance and Fitness Studio
1450 Clark Avenue West
Vaughan, ON L4J 7J9
905-763-8423
www.vibestudio.ca

 

 

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Roy Thomson Hall sent me to the moon and back!

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Back in January, Colonel Chris Hadfield was being featured at Roy Thomson Hall as part of a speaker series. Most of us are aware of who Chris Hadfield is thanks to his social media presence; the first Canadian Commander of the International Space Station, best selling author, and unbeknown to some, a popular icon amongst the younger generation—and by younger I mean my eight year old daughter. So, when I heard he was coming to Roy Thomson Hall I gave them a call to see whether it would be age appropriate for my daughter to attend.

Normally, with other venues, the box office phone number sends you straight to Ticket Master, who, although generally pleasant to deal with, don’t often have as much information pertaining to the event or venue as you may require. So I was pleasantly surprised when the phone was answered by an employee from the in-house box office. Admittedly, I had a lot of questions and called the box office a number of times, each time answered by a different employee, all of which were equally as pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful. They informed me that Chris Hadfield spoke to a wide audience, and assured me that my daughter would enjoy the evening. They helped me to secure tickets, and even took into account the fact that I was attending with a child, by suggesting cheaper seats, in case she didn’t make it through the whole show. I was so impressed with their customer service that I called up the President of Roy Thomson Hall and congratulated him on his fine employees and the positive experience that I just had.

But the customer service didn’t stop there. When my daughter and I arrived at Roy Thomson Hall for the show, besides the pleasant enthusiasm of the ticket collectors, one employee approached my daughter directly. He leaned down and told her that if she had a question she’d like to ask Chris Hadfield she could give it to him and he’d make sure Colonel Hadfield answered it. Well, this sent my daughter beaming….it was almost as good as if Chris Hadfield had approached her himself.

When attending an event like this we often forget that it’s more than just the performance that makes the night. It’s also how you are treated as a guest or fan by the venue. Not to take away from other Toronto venues, but Roy Thomson Hall is one of the few places that seems to remember they are offering a service and don’t just let the event speak for itself. And for that I’d like to thank them for such an enjoyable experience.

Roy Thomson Hall
60 Simcoe Street
Toronto, ON M5J 2H5
416-872-4255
www.roythomson.com/

 

 

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FedEx handles SQM with care

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I’ve talked about customer service recovery on this blog before; the act of rectifying a mistake your company has made with a customer. We’d all like to be perfect but a slip up every once in a while is inevitable. It’s how you deal with that mistake that makes the difference, and often you have to do something memorable to win the customer back.

Recently we’ve been doing business with FedEx and we happened to owe a payment, so they sent us a bill. Only problem was they sent the bill to our company’s former address. Obviously we weren’t able to pay this bill because we never received it, so rather then try to track us down through the pick-up and delivery addresses which they have on file, someone decided to send our bill to a collections agency….I’d also like to add that this bill was for something like $25.00. After the issue was brought to our attention, my business partner, Craig, gave them a call to sort out the mistake. Initially, he spoke to the accounting side of operations where he was told ‘the bill was too small for them to deal with so they sent it to a collections agency and it was out of their hands.’. What a blow! Long time customers (over 20 years) and they brushed Craig off like a piece of lint from their shoulders.

Well, Craig’s a pretty mild mannered guy but this really got to him, so instead of calling accounting again, he called customer service to complain. Boy, did they turn over a new leaf fast. Customer service apologized and even wrote off the bill, which was a nice touch, but after what Craig had been through he was ready to stop doing business with FedEx all together. But—and this is the part of the story where customer service recovery comes into play—the next day at work this huge basket filled with chocolates and cookies and all kinds of other goodies was delivered to the office by FedEx. This basket had to be valued somewhere around $50.00, double the bill we’d owed them, and attached to the basket was a sincere and tasteful apology letter. That’s how you do it! They took the time to individually acknowledge that our business was important to them, and apologize for the situation. Sure, it may have cost them a bit of extra money, but they kept a client and a business partner, and truely turned a sour customer experience into a sweet one.
FedEx
1-800-463-3339
http://www.fedex.com

 

 

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Anthony Haines- warming the homes (and holidays) of Torontonians

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We knew it was coming, but we didn’t realize how bad it would hit us. The December ice storm caused a reported 130,000 power outages across the GTA. People were afraid to leave their homes, shivering in front of a dismal fire. Even Mayor Rob Ford appeared as a ray of hope during this crisis, because despite his well-known personal issues he looked to be in control and played the part of the leader. But when it comes down to it, the real heat (or perhaps I should say cold) didn’t fall on the Mayor or any other politician but on the shoulders of Anthony Haines, President and Chief Executive Officer of Toronto Hydro. He stood by Ford’s side during each press conference updating the public on Toronto Hydro’s progress. I remember waiting by the transistor radio, all excitement for the holidays channeled into listening to Haines’ voice as he listed off the areas he hoped would have power soon.

No one could have been totally prepared for a natural disaster like that. Haines was blunt, not feeding the public false answers. He was a real, tangible beacon of hope, out there on the streets, away from his family on Christmas, solving the problems one area at a time. And yet, people still weren’t happy. I mean, when you’re getting thousands of phone calls from Toronto Hydro customers each day complaining, you quickly realize your trouble spots, and Haines was not one to cover them up, but instead admitted to them and worked on finding a solution.

I like to think quality is a journey, not a destination. Nothing will ever be perfect, but there will always be an unlimited number of imperfections. It takes continuous experimentation and brainstorming to find the glitches, which for most organizations occurs over a long period of time, but for Haines it was a matter of days.

I was impressed with this guy and so I organized a meeting, hoping that we might come up with some type of collaboration. He took the time to meet with me and talk and I saw that none of it was an act. He’s a generally an open-minded person with Toronto’s well being at heart, and for that I’d like to thank him and tell him to keep up the good work. It is because of people like Anthony Haines that I still believe that a positive customer service experience still exists.

 

 

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