(This blog is under construction; please pardon our dust.)
This region has many homes and automobiles with hail stone damage. While driving in a tornado trying to make it home, my kidlet and I were battered with baseball-size hail. I thought we were goners, and it was the most petrifying experience of my life (especially with my treasure in the back seat).
We made it through, and now the glories of customer service are coming to light. Let me share that customer service is dead, but only in the companies that allow it to happen.
I cannot say enough good things about Allstate Insurance, and mind you, these two experiences with auto and homeowners’ claims are my first ever:
- A guy by name of Jim Faris at the frontlines handled the auto estimate with amazing charm, personality, and guidance through the process. He was helpful today when I called spitting bullets and is still helping to manage the debacle I’ve experienced with customer service at White Allen Chevrolet in Dayton.
- The woman writing the check for me, named Nancy, was personable, helpful, and wonderful.
- My insurance agent, Michael Wood, called Enterprise and got me the discount Allstate rate of $18/day, and he didn’t have to do that.
- The roof adjustor, a woman named Tommy, was highly professional on the phone last night to confirm my appointment for today. She exuded confidence, expertise, and genuine care about my problems; I immediately trusted that she, too, was interested in helping me fuddle through this process.
Allstate scores a 10/10 on ALL fronts from the agent and adjuster to the people on the phones behind the frontlines.
To the matter at hand:
I was given a preferred collision repair shop by Allstate called White Allen Chevrolet in downtown Dayton; a huge brand and well known in this region. I phoned Friday at 4 p.m. to tell them I had hail damage; I was with Allstate; could they do the work? Sure, they said, bring it in Monday morning, so today I drove 30 minutes to take my vehicle in for paintless dent repair.
When I arrived, Bill hemmed and hawed and told me he couldn’t do my work. Imagine my utter shock; from Friday at 4 p.m. to Monday at 8 a.m. they couldn’t do my work and couldn’t call to tell me so?
After the 30-minute drive back jammin’ to the Black Eyed Peas and trying to get control, I called White Allen to speak with the collision repair manager named Rick Sloan:
Rather than say, “I’m terribly sorry for our horrid customer service and how we wasted your time, Ma’am; how can I help you? Yes, yes, I understand your anger, and we really screwed up telling you Friday that we could do your work Monday morning and now we cannot. Let me send you and your husband out to dinner on us.”
He instead said, “Well, you know we were supposed to have two PDR teams arrive Friday to do this work and they’re not showing up for work, and all the insurance companies know this and we can’t repair the vehicles the way they’re writing the estimates, and these teams are gypsies; we just can’t do this work and there’s no one for miles around who can.”
Really?
You wasted my time, White Allen. You don’t have the customer service respect to know that I’m right (because customers always are). And, you finally apologize to me AFTER I point out “you’re not even handling this call to my satisfaction” and you whine about your problems when you have an even bigger branding and customer service issue to consider?
Really?
And, no, you can’t have my name again, but it’s in the byline for all to see. I’ve already made the call to Allstate to inform them about how you treat their business policyholders and now you know exactly what I said, too. Oh, and one more thing, White Allen, I’m posting this on your Facebook page, and you’d better think twice about removing it.
Whenever a customer service person says to me “You have to understand” I immediately stop them and tell them … No, I do not have to understand, that’s precisely why I’ve paid for this service, to release me from the burden of having to understand.
Interesting how customer service ought to be handled, eh, Ray?
Did they actually use the word “gypsies”? Do you mean to tell me on top of everything else they were RACIST?
That is absolutely CORRECT, Jenn.
Bravo to Allstate…
However – that Chevrolet dealership needs a scoreboard to keep track of their errors… let me help.
Not fixing your car. -1
Telling you they could, and still not fixing your car. -1
Wasting your time. (driving the car to them) -1
Not calling to tell you not to bring it in. -1
Blaming the problem on someone else. -1
Blaming the problem on someone else while using a racist overtone. -1
Telling a customer their contractors/employees are unreliable. -1
Telling you that nobody else can fix your problem. -1
Not realizing you’re a Social Media Superhero. -1
Seems they get a -10… on JUST a single customer.
Customer service is being revolutionized by social media… but it isn’t. He has used that line often enough to not be bothered by telling a customer that he doesn’t have enough people to do the job, that nobody else can do it, and that he considers his employees/contractors to be unreliable.
With social media… it is the customer service provider’s problem, and will impact them. Adding bad reviews to Google places, FaceBook accounts, blogs, YouTube… those can be devastating to a business…
Any business has the time and expertise to do THIS to a Camaro: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.226794690666767.69897.135321153147455 they should have plenty of time to fix your hail damage, and the hail damage for every other car they take in.
Whoever added the “Hey there’s been some hail damage” comment to their FaceBook page, could have called the service dept. to ask if there were any dissatisfied customers… but thats not really going to fix their problems.
It does not matter what it will take for a dealership’s “service team” to fix an issue – timely accurate communication with the customer is essential.
Hello, My name is Nick Monk and I am the General Manager at White Allen Chevrolet. The Insurance company tells us how to repair the vehicle. In this instance, the insurance company is requiring a (paintless dent repair). PDR is only available by a handful of outside vendors which are currently overwhelmed from all the claims that have been written. Because the hail has been considered catastrophic, we have had several out of state PDR companies come to town and then leave because they cannot repair it due to the severity of the damage. White Allen has the facility to repair the vehicle but not under the PDR process. White Allen apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We hope we can help you in the future.
***I posted the Camaro photos as a tribute to our service men and women. We did not paint the car, it was from a car show****
Sincerely,
Nick Monk
Hello, Nick, and thanks for stopping in to explain your dealership and collision center’s policy about working with gypsies who don’t show up for work. The point here that’s being missed in my phone call to the manager of your collision center and now in your explanation is that “your shop scheduled my vehicle today when I phoned Friday at 4 p.m. and when I explained I had hail damage and needed PDR and could you do that work you said YES.”
There were so many things your people could’ve done to manage this situation and then rectify it. Turns out I touched your brand three times (on the phone twice and once in person), and the second and third times you managed it extremely poorly.
I appreciate that you showed up here to “apologize for any inconvenience.” I will now lose another day of work to take my vehicle to Cincinnati and spend $100 on a rental car to ensure I can trust the quality of the repairs.
This apology is insufficient. For several reasons.
1) Failing to apologize for misleading a customer.
2) Failing to apologize for shoddy customer service.
3) Failing to apologize for RACIST shoddy customer service.
4) Providing poor customer service via this comment with the BS line of “apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused you.” There is no “may have.” Read the post – she was inconvenienced. Apologize for THAT.
Thanks, John, really. It has been quite the day beginning with this dealership debacle and now 4 hours with the roof adjustor who said I wasn’t getting a new roof, and now I am (from the hail). I’m tired and stressed about this stuff (and, I am counting my blessings, believe me), but when someone obviously screwed up and didn’t have the courtesy to apologize from the beginning of a conversation…well then, everyone needs to understand that weather affects a community, and everyone is strung out from it.
A telephone apology costs nothing; repairing damage from it costs a brand.
Thanks for alluding and mentioning all of the above in your thorough way. I appreciate you and your support.
You handled this in a very good manner, and I suspect the best possible way to handle with this blog post. Hope your car and home are fixed soon.
Amy, thanks for coming here to share your support! I appreciate it very much and hope you’re a regular here!
The only thing I have to add after so many point-outs of White Allen’s failure to at least be civil–if not genuinely humane–while actually MAKING MONEY off the community during such a stressful time is that I’m so glad you and your daughter are safe.
Shakirah Dawud recently posted..Genuinely Curious Monday- Interview or Guest Post
Shakirah…absolutely it all could’ve been worse. The fact that I need an entire new roof and gutters, etc. plus the car damages shows the extent of the severity of the storm. And, then there’s all the rest of the nation and world devastated by similar or worse disasters.
In the scheme of things, civility, humility and courtesy are critical factors regardless of the situations we’re in.
Thank you for sharing your always unique perspective.
Jayme Soulati recently posted..Strategy for Summer Mompreneurs
Jayme, I’m sorry you’ve been through such an honest-to-goodness disaster, and like Shakirah, I’m so grateful you’re safe! Now we empathize with you as you face the cleanup, in the middle of an already-near-the-tipping-point life of balancing the demands of a career and single parenthood of a young child.
And that’s where the staff at White Allen seems to have dropped the ball: not having empathy and compassion for those who can’t take one more thing on their plate.
I understand the position White Allen is in, so I feel for them as well. It’s awful to be the middleman who has a desperately exhausted, frustrated customer on one side, and unreliable service providers from outside the company on the other. Perhaps the PDR team didn’t show up Monday morning, and White Allen was stuck when you showed up.
But it sounds like what you needed to hear, Jayme, was empathy and compassion, an apology, and more empathy and compassion. Something businesses need to have a lot more of than usual when disaster strikes their community.
Michelle Quillin recently posted..Do You Let Your Freak Flag Fly
Michelle, I sincerely hope White Allen reads your response. You’re spot on, and had I been able to empathize with their situation in the moment, then perhaps my grace and dignity would’ve shown through better than yesterday.
There are “teachable moments” (don’t you hate those words?) for all businesses in the face of calamity and customers — an extra training session to remind everyone touching the customer that kid gloves more than most must be worn. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand their situation; it’s kind of like they were sharing their behind-the-scenes problems with me and not acknowledging my wasted productivity that is critical to my balance.
What people are suggesting of White Allen, simply has NOT happened! The apologies are buried in the muck! Kind of like when you bury the lead of your story underneath all the blather. Just put the customer first for a minute and then perhaps said customer can understand the bigger picture and we can all commiserate.
You always offer a wonderful perspective; thanks, Michelle!
“There are ‘teachable moments’…for all businesses in the face of calamity and customers — an extra training session to remind everyone touching the customer that kid gloves more than most must be worn.”
Absolutely.
Businesses often forget in the middle of their busy-ness that we’re dealing with real human beings with real problems who don’t care about the problems we’re having delivering what they need. They need our support, just as neighbors, so we need to quit with the excuses (even if they’re real!) and just put ourselves in their shoes, and then act according to how we would want to be treated.
Michelle Quillin recently posted..Do You Let Your Freak Flag Fly
Thanks for writing in and sharing, appreciate the way you handled it.
We are using your story as part of our insurance sales training this week. It is a great example of the power of social media and its effect on the insuance industry. Great job on getting your story out. I hope that it all worked out favorably for you.
Thanks; feel free to have anyone comment here, and I will respond. These stories live on, as you can see.