I had a wonderful customer service experience the other night. A friend of mine and myself decided to hit up Pita Jungle in Chandler, AZ for dinner. Now – this was a Friday night. During the dinner rush. We ordered not only our drinks and meals, but also as an appetizer, a split plate of Roasted Bell Pepper Hummus & Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus.

As we enjoyed our dinner conversation, we realized….no hummus. The waiter came by, and without our prompting – noticed we didn’t have our hummus. The next thing we know – our dinner has arrived…and still no hummus.

Now – the hummus – not a big deal. But to our waiter – it was. Again, without any comment from us  – he apologized. He explained he’d told the kitchen that it was an appetizer, and to get it done – and showed them the receipt to prove it. A few minutes later, he came back, with his manager, who also apologized, gave us the hummus at no charge, and then gave us free orders of baclawa for desert as well.

Here’s the thing. We never said a word. Never registered a complaint. Not even a funny look. Yet, they bent over backwards for us. During a dinner rush.

Both of us immediately posted Yelp, Foresquare and Facebook Places reviews – mine being “Best. Service. Ever!”.  Now – in the end, this probably cost, in terms of free product, about $10.00 to them. Yet, what did they get for that? They just turned two customers into brand evangelists. Even before leaving the restaurant, we’d posted positive reviews for them. We’ve both told friends, family – hell, just about anybody that would listen – what a great restaurant they have, how great their service is – basically just did more marketing for them than they’ve done for themselves in the last month. And…we’d do it again!

What does this mean for your business? Simple. People don’t buy brands anymore. Seth Godin recently commented that we’ve “branded ourselves to death” – and we have. It’s not about the brand. It’s about one’s association to the brand. It’s about belonging. Feeling that, as Seth put it, “part of a tribe”. When you care about your customer – you show that they belong to you. It has to be sincere. You have to mean it. And, when you do – and your customers know it – they come back. And they bring others to the tribe. It all starts with how you treat your customer.

And…it doesn’t hurt if you give them free baclawa as well.

Fortunately, it looks like the camera buyer is truly an honest person. So, my last posting – wasn’t meant as a personal attack on him – especially since he just contacted me this morning regarding payment for the camera.

But, based on his note – now he can also say “PayPal SUCKS!!!”.

Here’s his explanation for why PayPal suddenly reversed the charges.

“Hello. I’m so sorry for this inconvenience. Prior to making the purchase I instructed Paypal to charge it to my credit card, not bank account, but they went ahead and did it anyway. I don’t know why. The bank returned the funds to me. I will deposit the funds into my Paypal account right away, so that your payment is not affected. Again, I’m sorry for this inconvenience.”

In the end, this all happened because PayPal went off and did things to the buyer that he had no knowledge of. Then, did stuff to me that I had no knowledge of. Creating a horribly transaction experience for both parties.

Now…might they have a good reason? Sure. What I’d like to see – is communication as to why they do things! Just a note saying, “Gee…you know that payment that go received 3 weeks ago? We need to reverse it – it will happen in the next 24 hours, and this is what you need to do about it!”

Hell, even the IRS is able to send me a note telling me when I’m getting my stimulus check. (Now…I just need to find out why I’ve never gotten it!)

So, PayPal – in the end- everything worked out. But, maybe you guys should create a layer for your transactions that actually interfaces with your customers?

I realize there are a huge number of people out there, that are looking to do nothing more than separate you from your money – and give you nothing in return. What really irritates me – is when companies that talk about how they are out to protect you – allow you to get screwed!

My example – I sold a camera on eBay three weeks ago. The buyer did an instant purchase via PayPal. Now, I always thought PayPal was the safe way to deal with stuff like this.  So, after I got notification that the buyer’s payment had hit my account, I then shipped the camera. Sweet – I just sold my camera for about $500, and got instant payment. I then checked, and got confirmation from UPS that early last week, the buyer received the product. Life is good.

Or…not. Tonight, I get a notification from PayPal that the charge had been reversed. This means that some dude in Virginia has a $500 camera…and I now have nothing. I login to my PayPal account – and sure enough, it shows the $500 payment, a $500 reversal, and a charge for the reversal! The reversal then has a link for “Details”. Which brings me to a screen that again, tells me the charge was reversed – and nothing more. Now, I’m irritated.

But, I figure – I’ll call PayPal and find out what happened. First, the dude that answers spouts all the platitudes that every customer service person is trained to say when dealing with someone that might be a bit pissed. Fine…dude is just doing his job. Here’s where I got pissed. He tells me that he’s not sure why the charge was reversed. That I need to contact the buyer, and have him contact PayPal, as PayPal might have put a hold on the account, not allowing him to submit a payment in that large an amount. WTF??!!!  And, if I don’t get a response from him, then I can file a dispute.

So…let me get this straight. PayPal will allow any body wanting to buy something on eBay (or, actually, any PayPal transaction) – to send money, get product, then take the money back? And the person then that has to do all the work…is the person who just got royally screwed? I can see if there was no proof of shipment – but the dude at PayPal could look at the UPS transaction I did through PayPal for shipment and see that delivery had been verified! But NOOOOOOO!!!  PayPal, without warning me, or giving me an explanation, just gave this dude his money back, I’m out a $500 camera…and I get to bust my ass to more than likely, get nothing for it.

This is crap!

I’ve had a number of computers over the years – and since we’ve all pretty much gotten to the point where we can’t seem to live without them (unless your like my mom, who recoils in horror at the idea of even trying to turn one on) – one of those feelings we’d all like to avoid is that burning sensation, deep in your gut, when you turn on your computer and…..nothing happens.

Which then leaves you at the mercy of either your computer’s manufacturer, or a third party repair shop if you’re out of warranty and don’t want to feel like you have to sell a body part to pay for the repair. The problem gets even worse if, like me, you live on a laptop – it’s not like there are many “user-servicable” parts on a laptop except memory and maybe a hard drive.

In the past, when this has happened to me, there is the inevitable fight with the manufacturer (where you would swear they staff their customer service teams with ex-help desk personnel, who’s entire mission in life is to make you feel like your personal development never proceeded beyond “brain stem”), trying to convince them that no, you didn’t break your laptop – it just died.

Well, I switched to MacBook Pro last fall…and part of my decision was based on the reviews of Mac’s being almost completely trouble free. And, I’ve had a bout of “Murphy’s Law” hit me when it comes to my Mac. Like this morning. After an evening of working on my art portfolio for my revamped website (coming soon!) – when I got up this morning (proof that Murphy was working – this happened on a Sunday) – turned on my Mac, and nothing happened. At all. Then…the even worse feeling of following the directions by inserting the Install Disk to trouble shoot – and it ate my disk – couldn’t even get it back!

Now with any other manufacturer – the process from this point forward would involve at least 2-3 hours on the phone with somebody that gives you a fake name (something like “Bill Jones” that doesn’t match the thick Indian accent – which I guess is OK, since I can understand an Indian accent much better than many more indigenous accents here in the States), followed by paying to ship it back to someplace that you’ve never heard of, and then days of wondering when / if it will ever be fixed and returned to you.

Why I love Apple. My process this morning was to use my iPhone, go to Apple’s site, and make an appointment at the Genius Bar. Then, drive 10 minutes to Chandler Fashion Mall here in Phoenix. Wait for about 5 minutes, where they then did a quick trouble-shoot to determine the problem (faulty logic-board). They couldn’t guarantee it would be fixed today, but promised they would do their best. 5 hours later, I get a call from them, saying that they’ve already fixed it and I can pick it up. At no time did they ever make me feel like an idiot – and in fact, even apologized for the 5 minute wait I had in the store!

Now, even though this is the second repair I’ve had, I understand that things don’t always work. For me, the sign of a good company is not just how reliable their product / service is, but also how they deal with things when something doesn’t work as expected.

I keep reading about the trouble the airline industry is in here in the US. Now, not only are we having to pay an upcharged fee for a second bag, but some airlines are now charging for the first! And, since you don’t even have the option of bringing those bags on board, you’d think  at the very least, they’d make up for this added inconvenience with better customer service…but you’d be wrong! Now, airlines such as US Airways are now going to charge $2.50 for a tiny cup of flat soda! And, the legacy carriers like United, Delta, Northwest, American and Continental wonder why people don’t want to fly them, and instead fly the low-cost carriers? Well, when your service absolutely sucks – why would you want to pay extra to be treated like cattle?

I just keep wondering – if more companies treated their customers like Apple does…they’d realize that it isis not only more profitable, it might even create a competitive advantage!