Richard Detrich’s Boquete, Panama Weblog

Wow!  What a kid and what fun to bond with Rian Patrick, my first grandchild!  I can’t wait for him to come to visit us in Panama and go exploring for bugs and snakes and chase our dogs and chickens!  Tomorrow it’s back home to Panama.  Today it’s trying to squeeze all the stuff into my luggage and stay under the weight limits.

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Yesterday I told you about my miserable experience at the local Home Depot.  One of the things that sets exceptional companies apart from mediocre companies on the Internet is that exceptional companies aren’t content just to put up a neat Web site, but they take the additional step of monitoring what is being said about them online and taking proactive customer service steps.  When I was director of eCommerce for 24 Hour Fitness I read every comment I could find in chat rooms and bulletin boards (it was BB - “before blogs”).  It helped us understand our customers and also head off and deal with problems at local stores which may have otherwise taken weeks or months to filter up the chain of command.  So KUDOS TO HOME DEPOT’S Internet monitoring staff: within 5 hours of publishing my post I received the following email exchange.

Richard – I read about your experience in one of our Seattle stores. I work for The Home Depot and am disappointed to hear about your visit. We would like to speak with you directly about your observations to make sure that we address them swiftly and appropriately. Would you mind providing a phone number and a convenient time to speak with you? Sarah, Home Depot Communications information@homedepot.com

Sarah, WOW! I am impressed . . . what I neglected to mention is that I had checked out on the Home Depot Web site some chandelier black shades which I needed to pick up. The Web site indicated they were available in this store . . . I found one cluttered in with a bunch of other stuff. Kudos for contacting me . . . I’m at my daughters and phone number is xxx-xxx-xxxx. . . I’m in and out but you do get credit for contacting me and I’d be glad to share anything futher via email. Regards, Richard

So Kudos to Sarah and her team. Now, the real test will to see if there is actually any attempt at follow up. My visit to Home Depot in Seattle was still disappointing, but I will keep the bumper sticker!