Benchmade Customer Service! Cool Story.....

A few weeks back we (WOW) sent a couple of knives off to Benchmade for warranty service. One was a Mel Pardue 3500 with a broken spring and the other was, well, screwed up big time. Follow me on this.

A demolition team who destroys buildings, bridges and other things sent us a Benchmade auto (7500). The knife had been BLOWN UP! Literally!

When you blow up things you drill holes and drop your charges into the main stress points of the building. In this case after drilling the hole the person acidentally droped his knife down the hole with no way to retrieve it. So it got blown up with the building.

He then somehow found it! We sent the pieces back to Benchmade along with the other knife for warranty repair more or less as a joke with a note explaining what happened. I sent a note with it saying I knew it would be a snowball's chance in the Sahara desert of getting fixed. Well it did not get fixed.

Benchmade sent a brand new 7500 along with a note saying it is snowing in the Sahara!

Now this was really cool and I am sure the owner will be pleasantly surprised!

Kudos to Benchmade!

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Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!

Hey go buy something from the BFC Store!
www.bladeforums.com/store
www.wowinc.com
www.gigandknives.com
www.macedirect.com
www.dragon-forge.com
The above sites are pure shamless plugs!

 
A

Arizona

Joined
Jul 21, 1999
Messages
200
Great Story. It's acts like this that make a company stand above the rest. Why can't they all be like that? Actually, SpeedTech has also got some killer CS.
 
Yeah Mike, cool, and smart; think of all the publicity you just gave Benchmade, for the price of a knife.

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LD
"Every Dog Has His Day"
BFC Member Since October 2, 1998

 
Lucky Dog -
this is true and perhaps something Benchmade was hoping for. On the other hand it's also a reminder of how easy it is to spread not so positive things.
 
I wasn't knocking anyone, just an observation.

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LD
"Every Dog Has His Day"
BFC Member Since October 2, 1998

 
Nice move on their part either way.

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James Segura
San Francisco, CA


 
Wow! A company that doesn't consider [unintentional] exposure to high explosives misuse or abuse. I definitely need to add at least one Benchmade knife to my collection.

Dave

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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of More Knives



[This message has been edited by dsvirsky (edited 10 November 1999).]
 
Gotta hand it to BM, that is pretty doggone cool! Above and beyond, no doubt!
BUT!
I'll bet if you did that to a Carnivour, it wouldn't need to be sent in for warranty anything!
wink.gif



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The individualist without strategy who takes opponents lightly will inevitably become the captive of others.


 
To paraphrase Bill Murray in "Stripes"

"What happened to that knife, son?"

"Got blowed up, SIR!"

Heh, heh, heh, cool story of great customer service. But let's not all start blowing up our Benchmades, alright, gang?

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Don LeHue
Royal Oak, Michigan

The pen is mightier than the sword...outside of arm's reach. Modify radius accordingly for rifle.

 
What Benchmade did was just buy themselves a very nice display piece to show how their knives get used in rugged service.

I used to work for a company that made hand-held computers primarily for factory automation (not PalmPilots, rugged stuff for industrial use). We got one unit back rather seriously dammaged. We couldn't figure out what had happened to it. So, we called the customer (Chicago and Northwestern Railroad) up and asked 'em. They said the unit was being used in one of their freight yards when a freight car began to roll (brakes failed, it happens). The worker who noticed the car rolling grabbed the first thing at hand, his Norand terminal, and jammed it under the wheels of that moving freight car. That terminal had literally stopped a moving freight car. While this certainly qualifies as user misuse, neglect and/or abuse, we gladly replaced the unit under warranty and put the mangled (but still functional) one in our lobby display case.

You can imagine, too, that C&NW was very happy. Norand bought a lot of points with a big customer for the cost of that one terminal.

I'll bet that you'll tell the story of this knife again and again and again. I'll bet that your customer not only never buys anything except a Benchmade again, but that he tells the story again and again and again. For the cost of one knive, Benchmade won as much good publicity and probably as many sales as they'd have gotten out of a full-page ad in a magazine. It'll bet the knife cost less than the ad.

The other day, I went, very late at night, to a particular fast-food place for a quick bite. There was nobody in the dining room, but the kitchen was fully staffed. As I walked in, another fellow walked in ahead of me. He ordered a cup of chile to go with his hamburger. The clerk filled the chile cup as the burger was begin prepared and set it on the tray. The cup was filled to about an inch from the top. The customer asked to have the cup filled to the top. The clerk replied that that was how the cup was supposed to be filled. An argument insued and the customer walked out.

While I had my burger, I couldn't help but give that stupid clerk a dressing down. For the cost of five cents worth of chile, he not only lost that one sale (a very important sale when the place is deserted), but you can bet that that customer will never come back to that place nor any other in that nationwide chain. He'll tell his friends too and they won't come.

Businesses need to learn three things:

1) The cost of a new customer. What does it cost you in dollars and cents to attract a new customer? Advertising, discounts and sales, websites, signs, even the cost of premium physical location. If you are in business, you should know this number and you should teach it to your employees.

2) The value of a satisfied customer, someone who keeps coming back to your store or your product even when others try to attract them away, who you don't have to spend money to attract, and who tells their friends about your store or your product.

and

3) The drag of a dissatsified customer. Someone who actually works against you, who negates all the money you spend trying to attract new customers when they tell their horror story to family and friends.

Benchmade a very smart company to understand that they invested in attracting this customer and that they can make him a lifer by simply replacing one knife. I wish more businesses were this smart.



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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.4cs.net/~gollnick
 
It never ceases to amaze me what a little bit of good will can do. That one act by Benchmade will be resounding through the halls long after the real story is forgotten. Once again integrity has risen to the top. During the heyday of Volkswagen in the 60's and 70's, besides "Small World", VW had one simple slogan for what they stood for: "SERVICE SELLS". It was true then and certainly true now.
 
dsvirsky:

Becareful with getting that one Benchmade. I did and now I have more than I can count
smile.gif
They are excellant knives, and buying them becomes addicting. If you want to see some of there older models(extremely nice designs) feel free to look at my website.

Dark Nemesis


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<A HREF="http://home.att.net/~dark-nemesis/" TARGET=_blank>
http://home.att.net/~dark-nemesis</A>
All the knives in the world go round and round, round and round, round and round...DAMN, one of them took my wallet !!! :)
 
ROFL!!! Great customer service, WITH humor! Real class act, Benchmade
smile.gif
!

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Yeah! Drop the chalupa...


 
Yep. It's classy and as Chuck pointed out so well, it's smart! I can't say how consistent Benchmade's service is, but I've seen a few other references to good service and even a few stories like this one draw customers better than almost anything they could do in a magazine ad.

The smart companies like Benchmade, Spyderco and (from a while back at least) EDI can get a real good "edge"
wink.gif
on their competition with service like this. People do hear about it and remember it.


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Paul Neubauer
prn@bsu.edu
Join the NSSSA (Nationial Short-Sleeve Shirt Association) -- Support the right to bare arms!

 
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