What Does Great Customer Service Taste Like?

Random Acts of Kindness, Great Customer Service, and Awful Customer Service.

My family have been very satisfied State Farm Insurance customers for 40 years. They have NEVER let us down or disappointed us and Marcy Gutierrez, our agent in Livermore has been the best.

Today I had my 2nd Customer Experience with Pagano’s Hardware in Alameda. My first was a couple of years ago when in the middle of barbequing my dinner, I of course ran out of propane. With no other options at the hotel I was staying in, I found the local hardware store a few miles away, it was 10 mins to 8pm and they said they closed at 8. I said I’d hurry, they said they’d wait. Then, when I got to what I thought was the store, it was all closed. I called them back and said, “Hey, you said you’d wait. And they said “where are you? Turns out, I was at their other location, a couple of miles away. No matter, the manager took pity on me and waited past closing time to fill my tank and make my dream of ribs come true yet another night. Do you know what great customer service feels like? This was definitely the feeling.(and it tasted like great BBQ ribs that time)

Today was a day of disappointment and ending in joy when I started and went after the east-coast insurance company, Philadelphia Insurance Companies who has been the best example of a big-company-we-don’t care situation. I am not their customer (and happy about that), but their insured slammed into the back of my almost-new Tundra on April 14. I had to pay the $8,000 for my truck repairs while Progressive and the company for the driver tried to figure out who owned the policy, then discovering it was PHPL and not Progressive I dutifully uploaded all the documents once again, photos, police reports, DMV reports etc.

My local adjuster, a guy out of Sacramento, we’ll just call him CM. has been MIA, sending me 1 or two emails to my dozens and only got fired up for some action when I was able to connect with his manager. Then, it was one call, a voicemail, and an email that handed me off to a couple more people in the we-don’t-really-care-department. Promises made, but none kept and 7 weeks after the crash, multiple trips to the doc and therapy for a still-sore neck but not a dollar has been sent my way.

State Farm is the backup and has sent me more emails, called me more often and made sure I knew what was going on, even though it is Pennsylvania Insurance who has responsibility. Did I mention I love State Farm?

So, tomorrow it will be a formal complaint with the CA Insurance Commissioner, who makes a living dealing with folks like this, me firing up my social media campaign and see if anything can get these guys moving.

But I finished the day and was reminded why in Sonoma County and all across small towns in America, we should be buying local, supporting the engine for a huge number of jobs in this country when I made my 2nd trip to Pagano’s hardware for some much needed electrical tape I needed to fix something. But because of the local unrest across the freeway, they were not open but would be tomorrow, the manager, Sue told me. I said, “I just needed a roll of electrical tape”. And she said, “wait a minute, ran back into the store and brought me one. She said, come back and pay me tomorrow…”

You won’t get that kind of service at the BIG BOX stores for sure. It was nice again to taste a bit of great customer service that warmed my mouth and my heart. Thank you, Pagano’s,Hardware in Alameda, and thank you Marcy and State Farm. Coal in the stocking for Pennsylvania Insurance Companies…