Great Customer Service Story at Timbuk2: The Right Way to Make Things Right

I have complained here about bad customer service now and then, at HP for example, when they were so hard to deal with on my online order.  But in one of my very early posts, I argued that the test of an organization isn't just found in how often they mess-up, but also in how quickly and gracefully they respond when they mess-up.  This is really just a subset of one of my favorite single diagnostic question for any organization: "What happens when someone makes a mistake -- or, I would add,  is linked to an error, failure, or set back?"  I had a very good experience that I talk about with Amazon in this regard.

In this vein, my friends at Timbuk2 just sent me this little story from goodonpaper.org, which looks like it was just posted yesterday. It is written by Andy, freelance web producer and music promoter. Andy bought a Timbukt2 bag, and after a couple days, the velcro patch starting falling-off.  Andy (who apparently lives in the United Kingdom) wrote the people at Timbuk2 to ask for a repair. I love the answer:

Since the international circumstances are what they are, and since I’m not all about weighing down a plane with broken product that we will simply look at and say “Yep, it’s broken”, and since I’m all about people passing on good intentions, this is what has happened, and what you need to do:

I sent you a credit to replace the bag. No need to send it to us, your dodgy picture is proof enough (for me; this isn’t exactly “by the book”, so don’t expect all the customer service people to do this, k?). Order yourself a new bag.

But!

Bring your Velcro-impaired bag to a place that takes donations, whether that place be your broke best friend or a Goodwill or homeless dude down the street. Don’t throw the bag away! Give it away to someone who needs a bag, regardless of that bag’s Velcro status.

No funny business, ya’ hear?

Andy responded by putting the story on his blog offering to give the bag to a deserving owner, adding "You need to post in the comments with how you’ll continue the good karma passed on from Timbuk2 to me to the wider world through a random act of generosity."

He already has some great responses.  To me, this is a great example of how, by erring on the side of trusting people and believing that good things will happen, everyone is elevated. 

P.S I love the "No Funny business, ya' hear?" 

Comments

[Perry]

This is Perry CEO at Timbuk2.

What is so hard to accomplish in an organization is to get employees to take risk, and at the same time keep the organization moving forward.

This is a great example of breaking rules but keeping the larger purpose in line.

At Timbuk2 we care about our customers, and we care about our quality. What I like here is those values were understood and acted on with the appropriate corners cut to make a customer happy faster, and get a quality product into the customers hands. Jamie did the right thing the wrong way - but now makes us question/improve that old way.

What I find hard is too often the normal pressures in a business to remain viable, make money, grow can drive those 'standard processes' to the forefront that need to get questioned occasionally. Yet if every rule is broken all the time we do not move forward as a business.

Bob - you have always said - 'if you change nothing in a business you will fail eventually, and if you do make a change in a business the change is likely to fail regardless.

Bottom line - I like the change in smaller doses like this.

P.