Unbelievably awesome!
Unprecedentedly awesome.
Is “unprecedentedly” a word? It seems unlikely. Perhaps its use here is unprecedented! Real word or not, however, it conveys my meaning–which is that I have never before experienced the kind of customer service provided this week by the gentleman who is painting the exterior of my house.
First of all, he did all the normal things right: gave us a verbal estimate that was a good price, followed up with an email providing proof of insurance and a formal written estimate, and offered to begin sooner than he originally said was possible. The latter, of course, was due to a cancellation by another client, so I don’t really count it heavily on the awesome side of the scale, but he was low pressure about it (which I like), provided references immediately upon request, and was patient while I checked them and worked out a scheduling difficulty.
Then, he showed up on time and got right to work pressure washing.
So far, this is good business but not extraordinary, right?
And then something happened.
He was about halfway through the pressure washing when we discovered his machine wasn’t pulling enough water. And then we discovered it was because there was no water. The aerator was empty. The pipes in the house had nothing but air in them. Oh, no!
We had been having a problem with one of the pumps that pull water from our well, so we shut it off. Months ago.
And we’d forgotten about it. There are only two of us in the house, and we don’t use that much water. The drought has ended around here, for now, and we haven’t had to water the lawn. Consequently, the other pump–the one inside the house–has been enough. We had totally lost sight of the fact that we’d shut off the outside pump.
Once we all figured out what the problem was and verified that the pump wasn’t working correctly, I would have expected the painter to say, “Call me when you get it fixed,” and disappear for weeks.
What he actually said was, “You need a new pressure switch. I can fix that for you.”
And he did.
He took off for Home Depot, bought the parts, came back and spent time in the hot sun doing something that was not at all part of his job.
Of course, we told him to add the cost to his final bill, and even then the job came in under budget!
I call that unprecedentedly awesome customer service.
The pump is working now. It comes on when it is supposed to start and shuts off when it is supposed to stop. It’s much quieter than it was previously. We’ll be able to use the sprinklers if we need them.
Oh…and the paint job? It looks great!
If you are in the Middleburg, Fleming Island, Orange Park, Green Cove Springs, Jacksonville area and you need a painter:
Russell Rowell of Perfect Painting.
Shoot me an email, and I’ll give you his number.
Meanwhile, I’m thinking it makes sense to always ask ourselves how we can go the extra mile. How would things change if we all assumed we were responsible for everything around us going well?
One hundred percent responsible.
For everything.
Think about it. Because Russell has set the bar pretty high.
