Emergency Customer Service

Customer service comes in many different forms. The smile, pleasant greeting and quick and efficient handling of a transaction, sale or other service is the more traditional form. Offering incentives for individuals to try your products and services is another. Yet another is making your products or services available for someone in need of help, whether they are a customer or not.

Every year at Christmas I make pajamas for my grandchildren. This year, though, my sewing machine died in the middle of craft season, and the only loaner sewing machine available only did a straight stitch. Now, for those of you who don’t know which end of the needle to thread, a sewing machine with only a straight stitch is like driving a manual shift car with only first gear. It goes, but only in one direction. It will get you there, eventually. I went out and bought fabric and the rest of the things I needed and cut out seven pair of pajamas. Then, out of a deep sleep I sat up in bed one night and muttered, “buttonholes.” I could do everything I needed to do on my one-stitch-only sewing machine to complete my project, but without the ability to sew a zigzag stitch, there was no way I was going to be able to make buttonholes. The pajamas were going to be super cute but breezy without buttons and buttonholes!

For a fleeting moment, I toyed with abandoning the project altogether, but since I’m not a quitter, I searched for a solution. There are several fabric shops in the area, and I decided to call one and see if I could make the buttonholes at their store. I called a quilt store, and after a short explanation of my dilemma, they graciously agreed to let me make them in the store. All I had to bring was my own thread and call ahead so they could have a machine ready for me.

When I arrived there today, they had one of their new sewing machines threaded with the buttonhole attachment ready and one of their salespeople to demonstrate the process. I had a lot of questions and they took the time to answer each one. Since I had seven sets of buttonholes to make, it took awhile. They seemed interested in what I was making and shared some of their own sewing projects. When I was finished, they even offered their machine to sew on the buttons. I was impressed with the fact that I wasn’t spending any money in the store, yet they treated me like their best customer. Not once did they try to sell me a new machine, classes or anything else. I was completely at ease and grateful for the opportunity to use one of their top-of-the-line machines. Now that I know where they are located and how they treat their customers, I will make it a point to visit regularly.


Mary Nestor-Harper, SPHR, is a freelance writer, blogger, and workplace consultant. Based in Savannah, GA, her work has appeared in "Training" magazine, "Training & Development" magazine, "Supervision," "Pulse" and "The Savannah Morning News." You can read her blogs at www.skirt.com/savannahchick, www.workingsmartworks.blogspot.com/ and on the web at www.mjnhconsulting.com.