Life is truly stranger than fiction. You cannot make this stuff up. But, before I go there, let me do a little compare and contrast and start with how things should be done.
L.L. Bean Does it Right
I made a commitment a long time ago not to simply rant, but also to tell the stories of good. This is a simple story really, as it should be. The family were up in Maine, saying goodbye to a long time family home. One day it was raining, so we decided to just head to Freeport, 15 miles away and the home of L.L Bean, among other outlets. We did not make any big purchases, just a couple pair of inexpensive sunglasses ($18 each pair). The pair my son bought lost a screw and one of the ear pieces about a week after purchase. An email, a response in 20 minutes, knowledge of my purchase, clarification of which pair broke, new pair in the mail – done.
Large Financial Services Firm Does it Wrong
Managing a portfolio of money. We are not talking Rockefeller nor Trump dollars here, but let’s just say more than the sunglasses. Emails, phone calls, opportunities to show value and caring; nada, zilch, nothing. Days go by and I need to send another email, make another phone call. An email labeled “URGENT” – oh, I better get to that. Wait, it was something they needed and did not have everything in place. As a matter of fact, the “URGENT” issue took a week to resolve, because they forgot to send something out of the office. I am not going to even touch the legalese and bureaucracy issues, as much of that is not in their control, however, they could have made it more tolerable.
Lessons Learned
I will most certainly make a purchase at L.L. Bean again, no hesitation. If the product they offer is more expensive than other locations, online or not, yes I will still strongly consider it. Did L.L. Bean “Wow” me or greatly exceed my expectations? No, not really. Wait. Huh? They exceed the norm, but like I said with a family home near the store, L.L. Bean has had consistently met my expectations of them, which of course exceed most (all) other retailers. What about the financial services firm. Business is lost, specifically that location. Is business lost to all branches of that firm, quite possibly. Will I name them publicly? Not sure yet. I may point them and some friends at this post and privately let them know it is about them.
The world is now a very transparent place. We all have choices… Let’s spend a minute or two looking at the various metrics. Sure, I am probably skewing things, but it is worth a shot:
NPS – Yes, I would and will recommend L.L. Bean, no I will not the Financial Services firm
Effort – L.L. Bean is very easy to do business with, I will do business with them again for this reason
Satisfaction – L.L. Bean met my expectations, their own bar is high, but that is fine
Effort and Satisfaction for Financial Services firm – seems obvious to me…
Did I take to the Social media waves with frustration and negative commentary, no I did not. I see no reason in this instance unless I call out the firms specific location. I did give props to Bean, because I felt they deserved it.
