I want to preface this story with two statements. I am not in any
way affiliated with the Stuller corporation, and I do not speak for
Matt Stuller or anyone in his organization.
With that out of the way, I have a story to tell you. I am a loyal
customer of Stuller, not a big dollar customer, just a loyal
customer. Yesterday I went to use a set of draw tongs I had ordered
some time ago, only to find they weren’t usable, the jaws didn’t
close properly. I ordered this particular pair because they were
advertised as “made in Germany.” That stamp was enough for me to
feel confident of their quality.
For the sake of brevity, let’s say the quality wasn’t what I thought
it would be. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that until the moment I
needed the darn things. Needless to say I was frustrated, I mean
really frustrated. Out of that frustration, I called Stuller and
spoke to some poor girl who was surely having a nice day, until she
was routed to me. In a rather frustrated tone, I told her what had
happened. I reminded her, quite a few times, that I was frustrated,
but still a loyal customer, and now I’d found they’d sent me a pair
of draw tongs that were not only unusable, they were ca ca.
She was patient, listened, and then put me on hold and called the
tool department. She came back with a means to replace my pair, and
send me one that was personally inspected. I got the pair the next
day, and those tongs and I will surely live happily ever after. So,
this might be the end of the story, but it’s not.
Yesterday I got a call from Stuller, it was Andy the tool guy. I
called him back today. The purpose of his call was to say thanks. No,
that’s not a typo, that’s why he called. Andy didn’t care if I spent
a couple of bucks a year, or a couple million bucks a year. He said,
I was a customer, and that’s all that mattered. He told me he
appreciated my willingness to point out something that had fallen
through the cracks. He said a customer who takes the time to keep
the lines of communications open, through good and bad, is a valued
customer. Those few words made me think. Isn’t that exactly what I
want from the people who walkin my door?
I guess that’s why I keep the shortcut to Stuller’s website on all
our computer desktops. This is the place I go first, for everything.
In the world of jewelry I’m a little fish in a very big ocean, but
to some size doesn’t matter, what matters is loyalty. If you asked
me why I think Stuller is a giant in the industry, I’d tell you
that’s the reason. Mistakes? Yeah, we all make them, but what helps
define us as business owners is how we deal with them. But, here’s
the important part, you cannot dealwith a problem if you don’t know
it exists.
Today my wife will likely place an order, and I guess it’s no
surprise to you where we’ll shop first. I appreciate knowing my
meager invoice holds the same importance as some that, shall we say,
aren’t so meager. But it’s really more than that, it’s about loyalty,
a commodity that seems to be losing fancy. But, maybe it’s not too
late, Maybe if the little fish notice, the bigger fish will start to
notice too. Sometimes good things come from the little packages, and
hopefully, this might be one of those times.
With Best Regards,
Ski & Cathy