In May Mystique Creative will celebrate it’s twenty fifth year of business. During this time we’ve learned the importance of providing a great customer service experience. We understand that meeting customer expectations isn’t enough – you have to strive to exceed them. The rationale being that if you give someone more than they expect they will remember you. If you give them what they expect, chances are no positive impression will come of it since, in the eyes of the customer, you did nothing special.
So, we look for ways to give our customers more than they expect. Recently, I had an experience that demonstrated this very basic fact.
Late last fall I had to take my ’63 Chrysler 300 to my mechanic to have the fan clutch replaced and the oil changed.
I called Chris beforehand so he could order the part. None of his suppliers had the appropriate part so he recommended an online shop in the States. Sure enough they had one that supposedly met the specifications. A week or so later the part arrived. To be on the safe side I decided to take advantage of my CAA membership (a classic car owner’s best friend) and had the car towed to Chris & Shane’s Cars.
A few hours later, Chris called to inform me that the part didn’t fit. There wasn’t enough clearance away from the rad. I said I’d call CAA and he said “don’t bother you can drive the car home.” Get this – he took the fan clutch off of his own ’63 Charger and installed it on mine. I was amazed. He informed me that he was working on his car over the winter including a new paint job and he wouldn’t need it until Spring. What made it more amazing was that except for the oil change – he didn’t charge me. “Let’s worry about it when the new part comes in.”
Five months later, after many hours of research and countless postings on Mopar sites I’m still without a replacement part. So I call up Chris and explain the situation. With the arrival of spring I asked him how soon he needed his fan clutch back. He said he didn’t need it back as was upgrading to a thermostatic version. At that point I offered to buy his old one from him to hold me over until I sourced the low profile thermostatic fan clutch I need. His response was “Keep it – no cost.” This blew me away. I had never experienced this kind of service from a mechanic before. It was a refreshing change from my previous garage treated me like a cash-cow and were notoriously for replacing parts regardless if they we’re the source of the problem or not.
Chris and Shane’s Cars created a customer service experience that made a huge impression. What did it cost them to do all of this? A bit of of time and a used part that may have sat on the shelf for years. No out of pocket cost and yet the value to me was quite large.
The bottom line is that they went above and beyond to give the customer what they wanted. They showed a customer that they appreciate their business and made it a truly memorable experience. They could have taken my money, given me good service, and I would have been satisfied. But would I have been as impressed? No way.
If you need a good mechanic in the Don Mills area, do yourself a favour and check out:
Chris & Shane’s Cars Ltd
1335 Ave Lawrence E
North York, ON M3A 1C6
(416) 385-1277
Paul Bies
President,
Mystique Brand Communications
