The Broken Toilet Seat
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
A few weeks ago, the plastic bolt that holds our toilet seat in place broke…cracked right in half. This put me in an interesting position. Do I buy a new toilet seat? OR Find a new bolt? As a frugal man, I decided to get a replacement bolt. As a first step, I emailed the manufacturer and asked for their advice on how to get a replacement.
Then after a few days with no email reply…and still no working toilet seat…I went to Home Depot where the seat was originally purchased and looked around for a replacement part. At the store, I ran in to an associate named MJ and told him my story. Then he did something surprising…he walked over to a new toilet seat, opened the box and removed a bolt from it. He gave it to me and said, “it’s free, you can just take it.”
As I walked out of the store, I began thinking how nice it was that he helped me. MJ could have passed the buck to someone else. He could have told me that they don’t sell replacement parts for toilet seats. Rather, MJ gave me exactly what I needed.
As a business guy, I thought about the new toilet seat with only one bolt sitting in the Home Depot back room. What happens now? They can’t sell a toilet seat with one bolt. I thought about the cost and hassle that countless people will now go through to replace the bolt taken from that box.
Sixteen days later and long after my toilet seat was fixed. I got an email from the toilet seat company. It read, “We’re sending you a replacement bolt.”
How are you treating your “customers”? Are you an MJ who does what needs to be done to provide great service? OR Are you the toilet seat manufacturer that misses your opportunity to serve?