It’s Friday evening at 6pm and we are out of water. After checking our electrical breakers, our first guess is that the well pump is not working. We’ve been using the same well maintenance and repair company for the past 12 years so I immediately called them. A recording answered and advised me that it was after ‘normal working hours’ and that they were closed. The recording also indicated that they did not provide service on Saturday or Sunday but to please leave a message and they would return our call on Monday. Really? We are out of water!
In a mad scramble I started searching the internet for another well repair service. I left a message with two in the area that said they had emergency service and would call me back. Lucky for me I called one more provider whose message said “Sorry we are closed now but if you have an emergency call Mike” and provided me with his phone number. I called the number and after 2 rings, Mike answered the phone. WOW! I explained our situation and he said he could come out 1st thing on Saturday morning. He arrived right on time, replaced our pump, checked everything to make sure things were working well and was gone in less than 90 minutes – oh and his rate was very reasonable. Mike was the owner of Clearwater Drilling, a family owned business who obviously gets the definition of customer service. Although we were about 10 miles out of his service area, he was happy to help. He was our Saturday WOW.
As for the well service provider that we had used for a dozen years . . . they called me Monday morning. I let them know that I found a great well repair service who replaced our pump on Saturday morning. I asked the representative to please let the owner know how disappointed I was with their response. I also provided a suggestion that if they didn’t want to work on Saturday or Sunday, they could at least call back and provide a referral so I didn’t have to call around for an hour to find someone who could help.
The lesson here is that twelve years of good service doesn’t matter if you leave your customer high and dry when they really need you. Customer loyalty is a fragile thing. In our case, the next time we need well service we’ll be calling a new service provider . . . one who knows how to deliver service done “well”.