A new sideline for Rob Lee

[Robert Flowers]

I thank Rob Lee should write a book and teach classes on customer service to Car dealers,Doctors,Large corporations I'm not sure he would make any money but it would be a service to humanity.

I have a black hole in my 12x16 shop,I know i have a angle-setting gauge for my Veritas Grinder Tool Rest but it has found the black hole and disappeared. So today i called Lee Valley because i could not find a item number for the angle-setting gauge online so i could order a new one, i spoke to a lady name Emily told her i had lost the finder and wanted to order a new one she told down my name other information and said they would send me a new one at no cost. I told her i had bought the tool rest years ago at Highland Hardware and it was my fault i lost it and would be happy to pay for the new one Emily said there is no charge for a replacement part she would not even let me pay for shipping and it will mail out on monday and will get it by the end of next week :).

This in beyond great customer service I screw up and loose a part and Lee Valley covers my butt it more like a
friend helping out a friend and i really appreciate that.

[Gary Herrmann]

Agree. Lee Valley has the best customer service I've ever experienced.

[Dale Cruea]

I have to agree on the customer service from them is great as well as the high quality of most of their products.

LN did the same for me on a thumb wheel for my 60 1/2 plane. I bent the screw some how.

I tried to pay for it but nope.
New wheel and they paid for shipping also.

Maybe both companies could get together and hold classes for some of the other businesses.

Great service from both companies.

[glenn bradley]

Rob's evil plan to brainwash me has succeeded. I buy from him whenever possible just because of the service.

[Gary Herrmann]

Yeah, he's done that to a lot of us.

Whenever I get up to Canada for a project, I intend to give him a firm talking to, after I check out.

[Harlan Barnhart]

Rob's evil plan to brainwash me has succeeded.
Yeah, pure evil. So subtle...:)

[Ben Johnson WI]

I thank Rob Lee should write a book and teach classes on customer service to Car dealers,Doctors,Large corporations I'm not sure he would make any money but it would be a service to humanity.


There are pockets of CS excellence out there. My day job is as a manufacturing/engineering manager, and one of the first books I was recommended to read was "The Toyota Way" by Jeff Liker. There's a nice section in there about what Toyota did when they built the Lexus brand from scratch back in the 90s.

Lee Valley is awesome. I need an excuse to get to somewhere in Canada with a store.

[David Weaver]

There are pockets of CS excellence out there. My day job is as a manufacturing/engineering manager, and one of the first books I was recommended to read was "The Toyota Way" by Jeff Liker. There's a nice section in there about what Toyota did when they built the Lexus brand from scratch back in the 90s.

Lee Valley is awesome. I need an excuse to get to somewhere in Canada with a store.

Go to the headquarters wearing a Penguins jersey. That should get Rob out with a stick pretty quickly.

I've gotten great service from both LV and LN, you can't argue them into letting you do something on your own dime. A couple of years ago, I bought a used LN plane from someone, and it didn't have a box. I also thought the iron was a bit soft, just because of how it behaved on stones (this is the kind of thing I would never trouble with now, an iron a little soft is no big deal). I called them and told them that, and that I wanted to buy a box. First off, they sent me a box and wouldn't take any money for it, despite me telling them I bought it used. Second, they said to send the iron back and they'd test it. They did, it was 61.5 rockwell. Dummy me, I don't know what I was thinking. They said it was an older generation of A2 irons so if I'd like, they'd send a second one along free, anyway, when they returned the first. I declined that, that would be totally unfair to them when there's nothing wrong with the first.

I have used the iron since, it works fine and holds an edge as long as expected, but for some reason it sharpens a little easier than some of my other A2 irons. Maybe it just had a favorable result from the cryo treatment.

You could easily argue that both of them have CS regimes that literally are too generous. Same with TFWW - have you ever seen joel's suggestion when you can't figure out which of two items they have that you'd like to buy?

[Matthew N. Masail]

Too generous? maybe... but the world is being ruined by "not generous at all and beyond that". I think it's a blessful thing for a company to show kindness and something that can go a long way, it's not just about the money. and believe you me, they make more due to it, the customers and the firm are happy.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Go to the headquarters wearing a Penguins jersey. That should get Rob out with a stick pretty quickly.

I've gotten great service from both LV and LN, you can't argue them into letting you do something on your own dime. A couple of years ago, I bought a used LN plane from someone, and it didn't have a box. I also thought the iron was a bit soft, just because of how it behaved on stones (this is the kind of thing I would never trouble with now, an iron a little soft is no big deal). I called them and told them that, and that I wanted to buy a box. First off, they sent me a box and wouldn't take any money for it, despite me telling them I bought it used. Second, they said to send the iron back and they'd test it. They did, it was 61.5 rockwell. Dummy me, I don't know what I was thinking. They said it was an older generation of A2 irons so if I'd like, they'd send a second one along free, anyway, when they returned the first. I declined that, that would be totally unfair to them when there's nothing wrong with the first.

I have used the iron since, it works fine and holds an edge as long as expected, but for some reason it sharpens a little easier than some of my other A2 irons. Maybe it just had a favorable result from the cryo treatment.

You could easily argue that both of them have CS regimes that literally are too generous. Same with TFWW - have you ever seen joel's suggestion when you can't figure out which of two items they have that you'd like to buy?

a insight on a golden question?
:)

[Chris Griggs]

Same with TFWW - have you ever seen joel's suggestion when you can't figure out which of two items they have that you'd like to buy?

Indeed, buy both, keep the one you like and return the other. I remember when Joel and Rob debated this. Either company would take the product back no questions asked, but Rob was not to keen on this being encouraged, as it not really a purchase made in "good faith". Joels argument was that they are both online/mail order retailers so it was the only way for someone to make a good decision, Robs was that people doing this en mass would drive prices up. As much as I like Joels suggestion as a consumer, I don't think I would ever do this deliberately - those costs really do add up for a company and I want their quality to stay high and their prices to stay competitive.

Edit: Here is the thread I was talking about: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?150777-Which-dovetail-saw-opinion-from-those-who-knows/page2

[Mike Brady]

Its my position that outstanding customer service can't be taught, but rather flows from the very top of an organization and infiltrates the fibers of the structure. My former boss owned his company and he told me once that we can't afford to lose even one customer. This all sounds so simple, doesn't it?, yet thousands of organizations talk about their customer service without being able to deliver it. Really good customer service oriented companies never speak of it, they just deliver it.

[David Weaver]

There is definitely a big disconnect between marketing (who would like to market that customer service policies favor the customer) and finance (who examines the cost of such things) in a lot of large companies. It can be boiled down simply to thinks like advertising a guaranteed return policy and then understaffing CS so that it's hard to actually do it.

Companies like LN and LV have to not only believe it from top down, but every single employee who fulfills the CS or who is customer oriented has to make the effort to do it, even when they know the customer is wrong. Leadership has to prevent any deviation between the marketing and finance groups, too. Rob probably swings a big game-used ottawa senators stick at anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Or throws holtey planes at people who don't comply.

[Zach Dillinger]

Mr. Lee could definitely write a management book. Could rightfully be published by Lost Art Press, as good management / customer service is probably more of a lost art than handtool woodworking.

[Matt Lau]

Mr. Lee could definitely write a management book. Could rightfully be published by Lost Art Press, as good management / customer service is probably more of a lost art than handtool woodworking.

It's funny that you mention that.

I'm a fan of Rob Lee, and I aim to provide that level of service to my patients.

Do you think that he'd mind if I fly in and pay him a visit one of these days?

-Matt

[Erik Manchester]

Matt,

Fortune favors the bold, just make sure he is in town as he travels a lot.

He has a very extensive tool collection :cool: that I would love to see.

Good luck.

[Rob Lee]

It's funny that you mention that.

I'm a fan of Rob Lee, and I aim to provide that level of service to my patients.

Do you think that he'd mind if I fly in and pay him a visit one of these days?

-Matt

Hi Matt,

You're welcome to visit anytime....I try to give at tour at least two or three times a month, it lets staff show off what they do....!

Cheers,


Rob

[Bill Houghton]

Hi Matt,

You're welcome to visit anytime....I try to give at tour at least two or three times a month, it lets staff show off what they do....!

Cheers,


Rob
In my opinion, a good part of customer service is having a boss who is prouder of the employees than of him/herself. I got really good service from one of Lee Valley's employees once - can't remember the details, but it was typical fantastic LV service. I e-mailed Rob, praising her, and got back, "Yes, she's quite good, isn't she?" (or something along that line, not boasting, but proud that she works for LV). For the CEO of a company with about 1,000 employees to know an individual at the grunt level is impressive enough; for him to then reflect praise of the company's service back on the individual - well, that's an important part of how you build good customer service.

Certainly, Lee Valley's not alone (warning: long, rambly story). We've had about 20 engineering firms involved with a water-table-cleanup issue across the street (gasoline floating atop the water table from old, leaky tanks in the gas station there). Over the years, they've tried various cleanup technologies, most of them noisy, stinky, or both. We'd talk to the technicians about the fact that we live here and would like it to be pleasant; mostly, we got brushed off. The second to most recent one was installing a cleaning system* on the FAR side of the station (which is a wide street with commercial buildings, no residences) a couple of years ago, and asked us to monitor noise. It was, indeed, noisy, and I let them know. The next morning, I stopped over to check; the engineer had gone out, purchased a muffler, and installed it overnight. I couldn't tell until I came around the corner of the building that it was running. I asked for the name of the guy's boss, and he gave me the e-mail address for the CEO, so I wrote a short letter of praise. Next day, I get a copy of the e-mail that the CEO sent out to all his employees, giving this guy an attaboy in front of everyone, and talking about how important it is, in spite of all the pressures of the job, to provide this kind of service. Now, I wasn't the person deciding on the contract, and many companies hiring this firm probably don't much care whether the neighbors are happy. But it matters to him that his firm have good relationships with everyone involved in the situation, and he reinforces it in a way that shows pride in his people.

It's not that doggoned hard; like supervising employees, it's really basically very simple. But it takes paying attention to things that a lot of people blow off in their focus on the bottom line, or their own glory, or something besides service.

*Kind of a neat approach: they hook up a big Ford V8 to the pipes coming up from the water table and burn the vapors. A little engineering in feeding the vapors into the engine, but, after that, it's technology you can find on any street corner auto parts shop. The muffler the engineer added was from a local parts house.

[Rick Fisher]

I keep saying .. its a Canadian thing .. :)

I had the same experience .. I lost the screw on my marking gauge .. offered to buy one .. the lady sent it in the mail n/c .. Its not a money thing .. its the attitude they have that makes you trust them and want to see them succeed..

I know a lady who used to work at Lee Valley every Xmas .. She is a woodworker .. She said it was an awesome place to work but she kept spending all of her pay check at work ..

[Matthew N. Masail]

LOl..... yeah... it would be super hard not to spend it all at work, the only other thing being wood and food, but who needs to eat anyway huh? :rolleyes: