Don't Play "The Blame Game"

We recently purchased some furniture from a well-known, high-end furniture manufacturer. When the first group of furniture was delivered, I noticed that the sofa cushions looked a little deflated at the corners, but didn’t think too much about it. That was until I sat down on the sofa. I could immediately feel the wooden frame under the cushions, and after a day, both the bottom and top cushions looked like a deflated soufflé—lumpy, wrinkled and totally undesirable.

A call to the showroom where we purchased the sofa got a pleasant reply and a promise to send someone from customer service to our home to do an assessment. After about three weeks, someone from customer service did come out, take pictures and wrote up a report. No promises, but he could see that the cushions were not constructed properly. He also mentioned that we ordered the softer “pillow top” cushions, so he didn’t know what they could do. Though his tone was friendly, it also felt like an attempt to place the blame for the situation on our shoulders. Since we tested lots of sofas in the showroom that had the same type of cushions and none felt or looked the way ours did, I didn’t think placing the blame on anything other than poor workmanship was appropriate.

Today we received the last of the furniture that we had ordered. Two very professional and strong guys showed up and carried a huge dresser, chair, ottoman and small chest up the 20 stairs to the second floor bedroom. When they put down the ottoman, I noticed that there was a dirty smudge on the beautiful beige skirt. Next came the small chest, and when they sat it down, it had a scratch on the edge of the front trim. When I asked if the furniture had been wrapped in transit, one of the delivery men snapped, “Yes, it was in the truck.” I told him that I thought it would have been wrapped while being brought in the house. He snapped again, “The plastic wrapping is dirtier than anything. Do you want that dirty plastic in your house? I’ll go get it for you if you want me to.” Shocked at his response, I told him he didn’t need to be rude. “But you’re accusing me of doing something wrong, and I haven’t done anything,” he replied defensively. I reminded him I was the customer asking a question and didn’t deserve a rude response.

He offered to try to fix the scratch then and there, but I opted for another service call. Customers have rights, and one of them is to ask questions. They deserve a courteous, respectful answer, even it is just, “I don’t know; I’ll have to find out and get back to you.” When things go wrong, a simple, “I’m sorry” and an offer to fix the problem goes further than playing “the blame game.”

Mary Nestor-Harper, SPHR, is a consultant, blogger, motivational speaker and freelance writer for Customerservicejobs.com. Based in Savannah, GA, her work has appeared in Training magazine, Training & Development magazine, Supervision, BiS Magazine and The Savannah Morning News. When she’s not writing, she enjoys singing Alto II with the Savannah Philharmonic Chorus and helping clients discover what they love and spend their life on it. You can read more of her blogs at www.csjobsblog.com and view additional job postings on Nexxt