How to get good customer service

If you know me, you know that I value the following:

• Rules
• Common sense
• Good customer service

I found myself at the intersection of those 3 things when I tried to return an air purifier at my local Best Buy just a couple days ago. Since the wildfires started ravaging California last month, I’ve purchased a few air purifiers for both my house and my mom’s house. It was then that I resorted to buying a combination Dyson air purifier + heater + fan. Everything else was out of stock, and I was super grateful that I could pick it up at Best Buy that same day because my mom’s house really needed it. It actually worked great, so I ordered a second one for myself as well as a Blue Air for another room in the house.

As much as I loved the idea of keeping a Dyson for myself, though, in the end I just couldn’t justify the cost — it was $650 before taxes, and I already had a portable fan and heater.

So, I decided to return the Dyson (unopened) to Best Buy. I knew it was past the 15 day return policy, but I figured that they would make an exception given the extenuating circumstances of the pandemic/wildfires/not being able to breathe when you go outside.

Well, it turns out that I was wrong. The associate tried to get approval from the manager for a refund, but they decided to only give me store credit. Obviously I didn’t want store credit, but was too annoyed to try to complain to the manager.

When customer service fails me I usually resort to Twitter to resolve my issues — the results are mixed, but it beats calling a number and listening to a million prompts before speaking to a human. When I left Best Buy that day, though, I knew I had to go to the nuclear option. Of course I still intended on tweeting about it, but I also knew this was the perfect occasion to try something I had never done before — I e-mailed the Best Buy CEO, Corie Barry.

“I can’t believe you e-mailed the CEO about that…I mean, is it really going to the CEO?” My friend said when I told them what I did.

I didn’t know either, but figured it was worth a shot. Plus, I consider myself a professional e-mail writer, and thought I had a solid case. Not 2 hours passed when I got my answer — an executive customer relations person called me about my e-mail to get some more details about what happened. They gave me their name and direct phone number, and told me they’d look into it. Less than 24 hours later, they canceled the store credit and issued a refund to my credit card per my request.

Needless to say, I was super impressed with how quickly Best Buy turned my negative customer experience into a positive one. To be clear, they were within their rights to uphold the rules. Common sense also told me that an exception could probably be made due to the circumstances. If I hadn’t gotten a refund I would have used the store credit, but after that I would never want to shop at Best Buy again.

In closing I want to share the following common sense tips that I use to get good customer service:

1. Be courteous. It’s true: you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. You can be frustrated, but don’t take out your frustration on the person you’re talking to.
2. Tell them what you want. Seems easy, right? In my observation, people seem way more inclined to complain to their friends after the fact instead of giving the establishment a chance to make it right.
3. Give them a reason to say yes. In my example, it helped that I kept the 2 other air purifiers I bought from Best Buy. I was communicating that as a customer, this shopping experience left a bad taste in my mouth, and I was doing them a favor by bringing this to their attention. (If I were a business owner I would want to know this type of feedback from my customers.)

Even if you follow all of these tips, it’s still possible that you won’t get what you want. But at least you’ll know that you tried, and that you always have the option to write the CEO of the company if you so choose.