Customer Service Failing and Response

Fiddleback

Fiddleback

Knifemaker
Moderator
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
19,760
wildmike said:
I got one little knife from Andy for my girlfriend. It is a great little knife.

Then he stopped taking orders...only 5 days after I received that knife He wouldn't take an order for a woodsmans. He makes nice knives....but his business practices suck!
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wildmike said:
Actually he had no back order list at the time. He just arbitrarily decided to take no more orders from anyone who had not ordered at least 5 knives from him. I had just completed a seamless problem free transaction with him and he had been informed when I made the first order that I would be ordering a woodsman from him.

He decided he wanted everyone to play feeding frenzy for available knives... I choose to deal with folks who are a bit more straightforward.
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Wildmike, I'm sorry you had a bad experience. The situation is my fault entirely. I'm sorry it went down that way. The timing was bad for your situation, and I should have made an exception for you. I apologize for this.

The decision was not arbitrary to stop taking orders. I was drowning in orders, and they are not profitable. They were killing my business. I was a year out on the order list when the decision was made. When I finally finished it off, I was very excited about it, and I didn't spend enough time on your request to figure out exactly what should have been done based on your situation. I should have made you the Woodsman. I thought that making one exception would lead to an avalanche of order exceptions. I can see now that was a mistake.

Sometimes I hear folks raving about my customer service because they have had a good experience, and I do try hard to listen, and cater to my customers. But I also have failings, being time short, and patience shorter is one. Yours isn't the only time I've let customers down, I can assure you. I have bad days like everyone else. I'm very focused on making knives, and I do fail at the CS portion occasionally. I always trying to improve at this aspect of it.

Again, I'm sorry for how I handled your knife order. You are right. I should have recognized your exception, and made you the knife.
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Guys, I wanted to copy this here, so everyone can see that I am not perfect at customer service, and that I do fail at it sometimes. I can think of four instances right off the bat where I responded impatiently and hastily to a customer. It is a failing that I am working on. I hope when it happens that we can calm down and try again. I'm not deluded to thinking that I am always right. I am married, you know. Sometimes I need a second chance.

I think most of the time I do well at CS. But there are instances where I have a bad day at it, and it costs me a customer. This makes me sad. My family deserves better from me, and so do my customers. I promise to re-double my efforts in this regard.
 
Everyone makes mistakes. I thinks the big thing in life (and customer service) is that when you do flub up the very next thing is to step up and get back on track. I have made CS mistakes in my own business and had to bite the bitter apple and apologize with my hat in hand. It never feels good to do that but feels fantastic when the bad situation gets turned around and the customer in question becomes a friend for life. I love what you do here. Thanks!
 
Welcome to the human race! EVERYONE makes mistakes - it's what you DO about it afterwards that makes the difference between a natural-born gentleman and an SOB.
 
Its a pretty broad skill-set required to successfully run a knife making business. Besides the actual knife making you have to worry about accounting, marketing, customer service and who knows how many other things on top of the normal family things.. I for one, can understand the decision to stop taking orders, just my .02.
 
THIS take a big man to copy to your own forum, recognize and admit to a mistake. However, the bigger man learns from his mistake and takes the necessary measures to learn and grow from it. Kudos to you Andy. I knew there was a reason that I keep coming back to FBF!

DD
 
I agree with what has already been said. It takes a man with an honest conscience to address that particular issue and then post it up here for your customers to see. Nicely done.





So......does this mean I can resubmit that order for a 3/32", 3v, saber convex, tapered tang, Recluse with jigged unicorn horn handles?? Oh, WITH and orange stripe of course!


LOL!! It's a joke of course. (And Andy refuses to work with 3v, thus adding to the impossibility ;) )
 
schmittie said:
I agree with what has already been said. It takes a man with an honest conscience to address that particular issue and then post it up here for your customers to see. Nicely done.





So......does this mean I can resubmit that order for a 3/32", 3v, saber convex, tapered tang, Recluse with jigged unicorn horn handles?? Oh, WITH and orange stripe of course!


LOL!! It's a joke of course. (And Andy refuses to work with 3v, thus adding to the impossibility ;) )
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I see what you did there, clever guy haha! Congrats on 1000!
 
Thanks for the sincere approach to this, Andy. Your CS is as good as I've experienced, and you've consistently shown yourself to be a top shelf guy. I know I speak for a whole lot of folks when I say that it's an honor to deal with you, and to be able to acquire your fabulous knives. Thanks for all you do - for the knifemaking, and the outstanding customer service.
 
Andy, one thing I've discovered running my own business for the last 6 years: Try as you might, it's impossible to make everyone happy 100% of the time. All that matters is how you deal with those people who might be less than satisfied.

For the record, I personally think your service is superb. After talking with you on the phone a few times(including today) it's easy to see that you genuinely care about your customers and you are willing to do whatever is needed to make your customers happy. Thank you for your hard work and dedication.
 
I just don't want everyone to think I run some kinda coverup business, or that I think my shit doesn't stink. I'm just some guy that makes knives. I don't have a big head about myself or my knives for that matter. I'm not a master, I'm a toolmaker. I'm certainly no master at people and relationships. I'm more of a bumbler in that regard.
 
Fiddleback said:
I just don't want everyone to think I run some kinda coverup business, or that I think my shit doesn't stink. I'm just some guy that makes knives. I don't have a big head about myself or my knives for that matter. I'm not a master, I'm a toolmaker. I'm certainly no master at people and relationships. I'm more of a bumbler in that regard.
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As long as I've been an observer, you seldom bumble. Actually I think you take your rare errors more to heart than anyone else, which, perhaps, is the way it should be.

So, even in bumbling, you do good.

(wait, did that come out right? :) )
 
Happens man, I try to be nice at work, but it's not always easy, and sometimes I fail. You seem like a pretty good dude from my interaction with you
 
Andy I can't add much to what's already been said here. I know myself and everyone appreciates your transparency with this matter. There is no way to always make the right choices or decisions. We learn from mistakes and move on. Obviously you're heading in the right direction and it shows from your customer support. Your choice to create this thread speaks volumes for your concern for your customers opinions and business ethics. The growth you are seeing also speaks for your customer service practices. Well done Andy. :thumbup:
 
One more thing I think is important to note here, Andy. While I don't know all the specifics of your interaction with this "wildmike" character, I can point out that this is an internet forum. On an internet forum many people like to say things that are exaggerated, rude, hateful and often just plain untrue because they get a kick out of acting like a jerk without any repercussions. I don't know if this is the case here but from what I know of you, and after reading "wildmike's" posts it seems like this may be part of the issue. Try not to let such things bother you too much, buddy.
 
I also don’t feel like I can add too much to what's been said already but I feel pretty compelled to speak up none the less. Andy, you’re doing your best and you’re willing to take some blame when it’s merited. No one can ask more, really.

You don’t have a huge staff and the ability to have a specialist for every role. When you’re juggling that many balls and have that many demands there is just no way to score 100% all the time. Besides that, as others have said, making mistakes is just a part of life. You’ve built a great deal of confidence in many people (as shown by the support Fiddleback receives on these forums) and that tells me that you’re doing things right the vast majority of the time.

As far as my personal experience I feel comfortable saying that the excellent customer service offered by Fiddleback is something that makes me dedicated to supporting them: I have had nothing but great experiences when contacting Fiddleback in the past. I would not hesitate to deal with Fiddleback again (can’t wait until I can afford another knife honestly) and trust that if there ever were a problem a little bit of patience and persistence would get it solved. Everyone has busy or bad days but in the long term I trust Fiddleback 100% to treat their customers right!
 
I appreciate all the support, but I think Wildmike was correct. He wasn't exaggerating. He was genuinely let down. I dropped the ball. Please don't flame him.
 
I've never met or even talked with you, Andy, but you remind me of a scene near the end of one of my favorite books (and movies), Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, where the West Texas judge tells the honest young main character, John Grady Cole:

"You know, you strike me as one of those persons who has a tendency to be a little tough on themselves. . .there's nothing wrong with you, son, you'll get it squared up."
 
Nice post Andy, and it's great that you can honestly recognize that you were in the wrong and try to make it right. Not everyone can do that, and I sometimes have trouble with it myself. But just don't beat yourself up too bad over it. Hindsight is always 20/20, and at that time you were under a lot of stress. Your livelihood was being threatened by the actions of others, even if those actions were unintentional. You made command decision under fire in an effort to keep your business alive and be able to continue doing the work you love and making tools that many of us love. Two years later your still making knives and better than ever and we're still coming to buy them. Often do decisions made under such stressful conditions have some collateral damage. The fact that you pulled it off only pissing off a few people in the process is a credit to the person you are. Just learn from your mistakes, try hard to make them right when you can, try even harder to not repeat them, and go on. You are an artist and knives are your art. That same passion that drives you to produce the fine tools you make is bound to be a detriment at times, that's only natural, and unfortunately unavoidable...just try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum and I think you'll do ok.
 
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