A perfect (yet UNSUSTAINABLE) Customer Service

I got a new exercise bike (not from the brand in the picture!). I had just brought it home and while assembling it I realized that a wire must be disconnected inside the machine so that the display did not work. I checked on the phone with the customer assistance. They agreed that it must indeed be a defective wire or connection and I offered to try to reconnect it if they gave me instructions and warranty coverage in the event of failure after opening the machine. Once reassured on this I took the toolbox and set to work. After half an hour I gave up: the machine was not meant to be open without damaging the side shells. I got back to support and, without flinching, they sent me a new one from the Company seat in Italy, but the machine is produced in China. The body replacement arrived in a couple of days. I had also reported a small defect in one of the foot-holding straps: therefore with a subsequent delivery by the courier, I got not only two new straps, but a complete new set of pedals. Well, I took it as a good omen that I will do so much physical exercise that I will consume the original ones (which are very well made and robust), needing a replacement...

No, after almost a year the clutch slips, probably just needing a trim. I write again to the customer service of the firm - this time without proposing to open it because I know that it cannot be done. Without raising any problem and within 24 hours they send me a new machine body. Again, the courier who will deliver the replacement will not be the one who will pick up the defective piece, therefore the courier will comes twice. I appreciate the comfort of the solution, but I live 25 kilometers from the nearest courier’s depot, therefore every time it’s a truck driving at least 50 Km. What a pity…

In conclusion: the customer service of this company is "perfect", what can I say! In both cases, simply on my word, the problem was solved in record time. Abundantly or better redundantly. But I wonder: will I still buy from a company that wastes material and logistics, contributing to the devastation of the planet where I live? A different design of the machine - possibly a different fastening of the side shells - would have allowed two quick repairs, by the customer himself or a bicycle mechanic in the area or the local dealer, the subsidiary of a large chain of sporting goods sellers. With this business model, instead and for the smallest thing, tons of material are shipped around the world, there has to be an overproduction of machine bodies, trucks make unnecessary journeys, the company bears exorbitant costs and... perhaps they will lose a customer because they are "TOO GOOD".

Such are the paradoxes originating from the lack of a strategic embedding of #sustainability that #ESindex was precisely designed to prevent. Embedding sustainability means prioritizing it in every strategy, decision and process. It means that in every step in the activity of an organization the use of resources and the possibility to save energy, emissions, impacts, costs is carefully managed. This, of course, preserving the high quality of the customer’s experience and very often improving it.

I am glad that, unlike any other customer with any other profession, I can at least propose to this company, which is so "EXCESSIVELY GENTLE AND GENEROUS WITH ME”, the services of Exsulting to adopt embedded sustainability. This is a lucky chance for both, because I would like to remain their customer an I like to keep in good shape…

About the Author: Federico Fioretto is the CEO of ExSulting, an advisory company for Embedded Sustainability towards the Circular Economy. He works internationally as leadership & strategic sustainability consultant, trainer and keynote speaker. In his most recent book, Sustainable Leadership, he illustrates his original CASE? Method for the transformation of conflicts, leadership and decision making through a competent communication. He has created the Embedded Sustainability Index? to assess the degree of implementation of Sustainability in organizations. He is Associate of C-lever.org a social enterprise working internationally on social, economic and political development projects. In 2017 he is a Partner in the Smart Industry Forum, a global Think-Tank to develop leadership and business models for Industry 4.0 revolution. He has designed and directed award winning trainings on communication and teamwork in healthcare. A member of various international scientific societies, he is a passionate advocate of sustainability in the business world and as a mean of social and economic development.

In 2014-2015 he was one of the two only Europeans chosen by President Obama’s Young African Leaders Initiative project as trainers of a new generation of leaders for the development of the African Continent.

More information about him and his work can be found on his Company’s website www.exsulting.com/en/home