I am sorry for my long hiatus, but we have been busy opening our new store.
Anyway, I am back in Middletown, Connecticut for some business and I could not help checking up on my good friends, FedEx. If you remember, I wrote about what I considered a customer service failure at FedEx. I received so many comments on that post, it demanded that I do a follow-up.
So, while in Middletown, I needed to overnight two packages. I prepared the contents and went to Fedex.com to print out the waybills. I then began my trek to find a FedEx envelope.
The last time I did this, I only found one box that had any supplies in it (in fact, it was fully stocked). So, I started there. I found one envelope and nothing else. I completed the envelope and drove to Staples to drop it off. I figured I could deposit the completed one and get another envelope. Unfortunately, that box was empty. I went into Staples to ask for an envelope, but their pack and ship is UPS only, so no luck.
I then went to all the boxes I went to last time to look for an envelope. As it was approaching 6:00 pm, I tried to hurry. Four boxes later and no envelope. So, I decided to wait and see if the truck had any envelopes.
The truck pulled up and I was hopeful. I felt like a kid on Christmas day. I asked, do you have any envelopes. The driver was very nice but said no, he did not have any.
So, long story short, I went home, cancelled the shipment, and went to the US Post Office the next morning and shipped my package.
Last time, I calculated that FedEx lost incremental income in the millions of dollars. This just confirms they do indeed lose income. How many people have faced this same situation and decided to not use FedEx again. Either one or one million, it is lost income.
So, to April at FedEx, or Roberto (Drinker of Purple Kool-Aid), I still consider this a failure. For all those people that read this, how much revenue and how many customers is your company losing because you are forgetting that customer service is a key (and I consider THE key) to success.
Final Thoughts and Happy Holidays from Don Noble.
P.S. I don’t mean to be targeting FedEx, it just happens that I am using their service and they failed me.