Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

Yet another example of why every customer is important. That nice little retired lady could have a lot of connections. Why, her sons could even be poobah biz book authors and bloggers with thousands (even millions) of readers!

It all started when Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg’s mother purchased a television from Best Buy. The Eisenbergs are best-selling authors and highly influential bloggers (GrokDotCom). Thus far, Michele Miller and Yvonne Devita have posted about this nightmare and now here I am, passing along the story.

The incredibly nice and patient woman suffered through a long litany of installation disasters. But, the real kicker was the response she got from Best Buy. I agree with Bryan – I’m not sure what’s worse; the experience, or the customer disservice email:

Esther,

I am Paul with Best Buy Customer Care.

I apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced related to your TV purchase.

Best Buy strives to make each experience you have with us positive and as fun as possible, and we are disappointed if we don’t live up to that expectation. Best Buy relies on feedback, both positive and negative,to help us find areas for improvement.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any questions or concerns. We look forward to your next visit to one of our stores or to
www.BestBuy.com.

Thank you,
Paul

Reminds me of the poorly printed boilerplate postcard I got from Sears a few years ago when my 3-year-old refrigerator died an untimely death. And, haven’t we all gotten this sort of “apology” email crap? If it were me, they would definitely NOT want to “look forward” to my next visit to one of the stores. I’m not nearly as nice or patient as Esther. (And, by the way, who gave Paul permission to call her by her first name?)

Tags: Best Buy, customer service