Good customer service costs little, but can cost a lot

So as part of my getting fit I recently purchased a polar heart monitor/sports watch from dolphinfitness.co.uk

The price was pretty much the same across most sites, but theirs looked good, the contact numbers were all there and the usual t&c’s/pp looked genuine enough so I went ahead.

The online order went smoothly enough and an order confirmation was soon to follow.

The following day another email was received telling me the order was on its way, would be with me the next day and provided tracking details.

So far so good, ok I know the whole process so far was pretty much automated, but it worked.

The following day I checked the tracking and sure enough the item was not out for delivery.

The courier Parcelforce (or is it Parcelfarce?) had tracked the item to their hub and it had not been seen since.

A quick call to them confirmed they weren’t sure exactly where it was but they were sure it was just delayed.

Having commercially used, and stopped using, Parcelforce for retail deliveries before, I had little to no confidence in their service, so decided to place a call to Dolphin Fitness to see if they could get a more definite answer.

I tried calling but was told that the number was out of order, not a good start, but having also worked for a call center based company before I know problems with the phones do occur so sent an email requesting for someone to look into it and either call me or drop me an email.

Now the good news is my delivery turned up a couple of days later, after going from London to Glasgow, back to London then finally to myself, about halfway between the two.

I expected this from Parcelforce, to be honest I would of been shocked if it turned up on time.

Now Dolphin Fitness however, who I have never used before,  I was hoping for better things.

However to this day, approximately 2 weeks later there has been no call, no email to check my delivery arrived or even to explain they had problems with their phone/system so they couldn’t do anything for me at the time.

Now I understand that this is not the end of the world, I received my goods a few days late and to be fair they did send what I had ordered.

The order wasn’t huge, £80 for a sports watch, I’m sure they get lots of orders like that, so maybe they couldn’t be bothered to answer my email.

If I was really bothered I would of sent them a letter, or at least complained to my friends and said I would.

What I am going to do is act with my feet, or in this case my fingers.

Later this summer I shall be purchasing a few thousand pounds worth of sports equipment I have been saving for, guess where I won’t be shopping.

So take note retailers, replying to an email cost practically nothing, but it does keep your customers happy, and more importantly, your customers.

On a side note the Polar F7 is superb, very useful to help keep track of your exercise and make sure you work out efficiently, so good I am now considering upgrading to a higher spec’d and a lot more expensive model.

Guess where that’s not getting bought from as well…

Tags: confidence, dolphin fitness, polar heart monitor, retail deliveries

Filed under: customer service by Matt Dean