HOW TO BECOME A TOTAL FAILURE

I ran across an interesting customer service story related to rebate checks today. This customer service story was published in the New York Times on March 19. The story reminded me of rule #10: The Customer is someone you have to put up with. Here’s a short excerpt:

“I was immersing 12 empty bottles of Dancing Bull wine in my half-filled bathtub, trying to remove the labels without mutilating them, when I began to wonder whether applying for a rebate of $2 a bottle was worth the hassle.

I was doing what the fine print in the mail-in rebate form told me to do. To detach the label and its U.P.C. code, which along with the cash register receipt was required as proof of purchase, it said, I should “soak empty bottle in hot tap water (approximately 130 degrees) and liquid dish washing soap.”

‘The U.P.C. code can then be lifted off in 5-10 minutes,’ the instructions, clearly visible under my magnifying glass, had assured me.

It was not to be. On my knees, crouching over the bobbing beverage containers, I could neither coax the labels off with my fingers nor scrape them off with a knife. Turning to face my wife and two adult children, who had crowded behind me to observe me in action, I beheld expressions that came perilously close to smirks.

‘Maybe I got the temperature wrong,’ I mumbled.”

I encourage you to read the entire customer service story. It’s certainly one story I can relate to, and one I’m sure many of you can relate to as well. In fact, if you’re an entrepreneur and offer rebates to your customers, then you just may learn a bit from the story. And I think two lessons you could learn from this customer’s story is to make applying for a rebate simple for your customers, and two, don’t delay mailing the rebate checks to your customers.

Misti Sandefur is a writer for How to Become a Total Failure. In addition to writing blog posts for How to Become a Total Failure, Misti also blogs at Teevieo, Pure Blogging, and 62946 - a blog about Harrisburg, Illinois. Her personal blog is Life of a Writer.