Do you love fanatical customer service?  I do.  Here is a recount of my recent, awesome customer experience (I am so happy I need to blog about it).

Several weeks ago, we dropped our daughter off at boarding school.  We were there for one, very busy and emotional day.   Because her new school’s campus is big, we all agreed a bicycle would be nice (and she loves to bike).

Sitting outside the school’s post office, I pulled up Safari on my iPhone and Googled for the local Eastern Mountain Sports store.  I immediately hit the “call now” button.  Rose answered and I explained to her my predicament.  We wanted a bicycle for our daughter, who we were dropping off at the boarding school across town, and we were leaving town that afternoon, so we would be unable to deliver it to her.  I then asked Rose if she could arrange for delivery to our daughter.  She immediately said, in a very positive and upbeat voice, “We have no process for that but we pride ourselves on going above and beyond for our customers so let me see if I can figure out a solution”.  She put me on hold for less than a minute, returned to the phone and said “We have a solution, one of our staff members will drive the bicycle over to her when it is ready.”  This was the answer I wanted to hear!

After our daughter was settled in and we said our good-byes (which wasn’t easy), on the way out of town, we stopped by the local EMS store, met Rose, and her colleague Vilius, who had volunteered to deliver the bicycle.  We purchased the bike and all of its accessories (helmet, bell, basket, lock etc.)(we spent a small fortune).  It took Vilius one week to order and assemble the bike and, as promised, he delivered it to our daughter across town at her new boarding school (of course, he called me on my cell phone the day before delivery).  We were all very happy.

Here is the point.  Yes, this made us very satisfied customers (so much so that I have been compelled to blog about this experience).  But this just didn’t happen by chance.  This happened by intentional design.  Leadership set a strategic vision: fanatical customer service (an excerpt from the EMS website on a page titled FANATICAL CUSTOMER SERVICE  reads, “At Eastern Mountain Sports, our store guides will stop at nothing to make you happy. It’s all part of our commitment to doing whatever it takes to earn your business and keep you coming back.”

Rose and Vilius knew that fanatical customer service was their company’s priority and culture and they were empowered to tactically execute on this vision without first asking for permission.  As the customer facing employees of EMS, they were aligned and liberated to tactically execute on leaderships’ clearly articulated strategic vision.  This is leadership.  Well-done Rose, Vilius, and EMS (and its owner, Versa Capital).