Excuse Me While I Rant About Customer Service

I am a sucker for good customer service.  You treat me right and I will come back to your store, leave you a great tip, buy more than I need.  I can overlook many things, like what others might consider lack of ambiance, if the customer service is superb.  I do like nice places but have been to many "nice places" that didn't treated me so well. Make me comfortable and happy and make me believe that you really care about that. It's simple stuff. Top off my water glass before the ice is clinking around the bottom. I’m talking napkins in my bag at the drive-thru. I mean a “hello” or a “thank you” as I make my grocery purchase. The little things make the difference.

I have found a business that deals in great customer service. It's a place here in town but not a posh restaurant in a swank downtown locale. It is not a spa where I was pampered unmercifully ‘til I could take no more. Unexpectedly, I was treated like royalty by the fine employees of Jiffy Lube on Route 40.

How can a simple, quick stop auto maintenance errand be more than just what it is: a mundane chore? It’s because of Them - those chivalrous knights in canvas jump suits, those auto jedis, the employees and management of Route 40’s Jiffy Lube. They did for me what no other oil change enterprise has ever done. Or what any other service provider has done in a long, long time. No, not that kind of personal service! Simply, they were courteous, efficient, professional, knowledgeable, thoughtful, and thorough. These things sounds obvious and expected, but I find these qualities less and less often in service settings.

Here's how it went. I pull up to the bay and hear the music playing...Alice in Chains? Mudvayne? Five Finger Death Punch? Okay, wouldn't be my pick but it's festive in a self-loathing sort of way (this is something I may be overlooking later.)

Then I am greeted immediately, before I even geared my car down into P, personally at my car window by a Generation Y guy. He’s dressed in standard Jiffy Lube issue, his hair is shorn militantly short and he has a few tattoos and piercings. If I went on appearances alone, expectations for superior customer service could be slim (another thing I might be overlooking later).

But the cordials that fell out of his mouth wiped away all preconceived ideas of what a typical Gen Y member is capable. Specifically,

He wasn’t texting while he greeted me (yes, this has happened to me on other occasions).

He wasn’t apathetic or bitter about his job; or if he was, he hid it well. (I have been waited on by a customer service rep who was simultaneously complaining to her coworker about how much she hates customers...)

And he was friendly.

As were all the other 3-5 employees plus one member of management that became enthusiastically, if not obsessively, involved in my measly oil change.

This team worked as one well-oiled machine, if you will, to get me out of their shop as quickly and as satisfied as possible. And it worked. Again, it’s the little things that make the difference.

Now you might think I have gone overboard about an oil change and what seems like standard service. You might think that I don't get out enough. You might think I was driving my husband's truck that day. You might think that I am a 40-something woman who has an affinity for younger men. Did you just call me a COUGAR?! (That's REALLY funny!)

But you would be wrong about all those things. I'll say it again, I'm a sucker for great customer service...you treat me right and I will do business with you. And I'll be back to Jiffy Lube in 2,993 miles from now.