I’ll be honest: I was less than zen when I walked out of my house to find my bike had been liberated from its lock during the night. There was a lot of swearing and impotent rage, but I’ve since calmed down a little, and tried to make the best of a bad situation by taking a lesson from the whole experience.
As they say – when life hands you lemons, shut up and eat your goddamn lemons.
The first thing I learned is that while social media can have an immediate effect on a company’s bottom line, it cannot shatter a reputation earned from having a good product. My first thought as I held the cut lock in my hand: "God damn, I wish I had bought a Kryptonite lock."
The second thing I learned when I called the place I bought the bike from three months ago (yeah) was that the people you have answering your phones can dramatically affect the perception of the company. The first girl I talked to was unsympathetic, unhelpful and generally unsmart. I’d always been happy with the service they provided, but I almost walked away completely and bought my new bike somewhere else. Instead, I emailed the owner of the company, from whom I had bought the bike originally.
Which leads me to the third thing I learned – a simple customer service gesture can make a lifelong customer. When I emailed the owner, he offered to loan me a bike until I bought a new one. They’ve got tonnes of used bikes in the shop, so the gesture was small, but at the same time, extremely meaningful to an existing customer.
Long story short, I’m buying my new bike from the same place, and I’m buying a Kryptonite lock. That is, unless I can find a lock with an insurance policy that will hunt down the person who stole the bike and give me five minutes alone in a locked room with them. I would pay any amount of money for that.
