Shopsmith Customer Service experience

[backhertz]

I have called customer service many, many times. Some times I get connected almost immediately to Jan or Linda. I'm not familiar with the new person. Then there are other times where I am only hold and I wonder to myself when will Shopsmith ever change their 'on hold' music which is about 3-4 years old or older. But one thing that helps me is the speakerphone function on my telephone. I simply press speaker and then go on with doing other things so the time isn't wasted. One thing Shopsmith does is ensure any question I have is completely answered or if it isn't, they follow-up and get back to me. Well, I'm not the only Shopsmith customer, so unless you call first thing in the morning, there will most likely be a short wait. Oh, another thing I did was go cordless with my telephones because I hate being tied to an apparent umbilical cord. With my new 5.8 GHz cordless phone, I can walk across the street to my neighbor's or any place on my property. So no time is wasted while I'm on hold. Being over the 5-0 mile age marker makes me want to take advantage of every moment I have left and not be left tied to by an umbilical cord listening to the same thing over & over again.

But you wanna know something? Despite the hard times during the economic turnaround in this country, I think we are all very lucky there is anyone left working at Shopsmith. Oh, one more thing. If you click on the customer support link on Shopsmith.com- wherever it is on the web page, there is a customer service form. I guarantee you will get an answer.
https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/contactform.htm

[Ed in Tampa]

[quote="mgdesigns"]Since I was laid off a couple of years ago as a CADCAM Machine designer, I've had to switch yet again my careers to keep roof & food for my little family. I am a Technical Specialist for Small & Medium Business at a major computer corporation. I work at a Call Center with up to 250 others, and we answer calsl all day long. We do not have time limits, just requirements to resolve the issues in the first call whenever possible. Sometimes callers are irate because they've been in the queue for a long time 20-45 minutes (extreme cases), but we have to still be smooth and courteous to snitty customers. Most of the time we can help, and the customers feel better overall for the experience. Please be friendlier to the person on the other end of your calls,]

Research has shown that after 10 minutes wait most people have become angry. It has also been show that if 10 minutes holds/waits are common place customers will begin to look for other options instead of using the offending customer service that made them wait.

If I have to wait for longer than 10 minutes I usually follow the call with a letter to company management letting them know they have a problem. If the company wants to stay in business they correct the problem, if not they offer excuses and I begin to look for another company.

I say this from experience having been in customer service in one form or another my entire working career and techinically managing a customer service call center for 13. I have been on the recieving end of many complaint calls and I never offer excuses. To be a success I was taught to understand the problem and implement fixes immediately. There is usually always an answer that stays within budget and other constaints.

In my opinion to accept a wait time of longer than ten minutes says to me you are willing to be treated shoddily and you will get what you accept.

[Ed in Tampa]

Every time I read one of these discussions I feel myself tighten up. I often feel like I as well as others have unrealistic expectations given the difficulties of our times. Then I have a day like today. We needed to have our car serviced. Nothing major, simply time for routine maintenance. Then while visiting with the service specialists I discovered that the factory tires on my model car are only expected to last 15,000 miles. I bit my tongue and left that place. Then my wife and I set out to accomplish a list of errands. The next two places we went did not have advertised items in fact neither of them had ever stocked anything resembling the ads. Then a trip to Woodcraft, I spent a fair amount of money yet once again they did not have two items topping my list. Please forgive me but as I sit here this evening I need to say it again. I am too demanding and expect every vendor to have what I want, when I want it and at the price I desire. I pray that each of us can learn to take a deep breath and be a bit more patient. After all the folks that care the most about us allow us space and time to live up to our claims. why should we not treat others the same way. Yes I know I have abused the use of the soap box and shall retire it to the dark dusty corner of my closet. fjimp

Jim
I don't think you are too demanding I think you are expecting normal service.
How can car manufactures justify putting 15K tires on the car that they are selling at the prices they are asking today? If people demanded more they would be forced to met the demand. Instead we knuckle under bite our tongues and get exactly what we deserve.

Car prices are nuts today, even the crazy house prices fell but if you have been watching the car prices have remainted about the same.
I also love their marketing, they tell you all about the blue tooth capabilities and say nothing about the fact the tires will only last 15K.

I think today's youth really are buying $35K bluetooth phones instead of cars.

I understand demand stocking, where they only stock what is in demand. The concept makes sense. What doesn't make sense is when they order 10 sell them out in a day or two and then only order ten more. I watched one store have 6 of high dollar item that took almost a year to sale. While on the opposite end they refused to order more that 3 of an item that sold out immediately. I would routinely walk away from the store without the items I wanted. I know I did this often enough that they lost enough of my business to pay for the high dollar item they were stuck with.
Frankly the store needed a new buyer and inventory specialist.

FACT if you don't have it to sell you can't make money selling it.

And I two will climb down from my soap box. Sorry!

[mrblanche]

Ya forgot that they also HELP people with problems or questions.

We were told (when I was in real estate) that research has shown that a customer's attitude begins to deteriorate when he is put on hold, and it only takes 17 seconds for that attitude to become predominantly negative.

[SDSSmith]

I have called customer service many, many times. Some times I get connected almost immediately to Jan or Linda. I'm not familiar with the new person. Then there are other times where I am only hold and I wonder to myself when will Shopsmith ever change their 'on hold' music which is about 3-4 years old or older. But one thing that helps me is the speakerphone function on my telephone. I simply press speaker and then go on with doing other things so the time isn't wasted. One thing Shopsmith does is ensure any question I have is completely answered or if it isn't, they follow-up and get back to me. Well, I'm not the only Shopsmith customer, so unless you call first thing in the morning, there will most likely be a short wait. Oh, another thing I did was go cordless with my telephones because I hate being tied to an apparent umbilical cord. With my new 5.8 GHz cordless phone, I can walk across the street to my neighbor's or any place on my property. So no time is wasted while I'm on hold. Being over the 5-0 mile age marker makes me want to take advantage of every moment I have left and not be left tied to by an umbilical cord listening to the same thing over & over again.

But you wanna know something? Despite the hard times during the economic turnaround in this country, I think we are all very lucky there is anyone left working at Shopsmith. Oh, one more thing. If you click on the customer support link on Shopsmith.com- wherever it is on the web page, there is a customer service form. I guarantee you will get an answer.
https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/contactform.htm

I am 0 for 2 the last couple of times I used that form. Is your guarantee.......30 feet or 30 seconds, whichever comes first!?:D

I find the Shopsmith customer service ladies to be very helpful.

[jmoore65]

If it were my business, after 5 minutes the customer would be given the option of leaving a voice mail message or staying on hold.

Voice mail messages would need to be returned with a stated period of time. Even if to triage the call and schedule a return call.

I'm assuming ShopSmith's phone system can't easily/cheaply be programmed to do this for them.

And yes - you won't get everyone to hold on for 5 minutes.

But - it's more effective than letting people stay on hold for 40 minutes - or just disappear.

Additionally, there may be a problem with the phone system and ShopSmith may not be aware of it.

Finally, it is reasonable to critique how ShopSmith handles phone call volume that exceeds the number of available customer service reps (seemingly intermitant). And, you can separate that critique from the experience you have with the rep once they get on the line (usually good).

My expectations would be infrequent or new users of customer service are probably let down by the long waits.

Customers who value the service once connected will be willing to call back later (e.g. hangup earlier and call again later) or wait on hold longer.

Good quality customer service reps can help keep existing customers - but won't help with new or periodic customers.

It may be that ShopSmith is losing valuable customer revenue due to their overloaded phone system.

On the other hand, it is possible they've done an analysis with actual numbers and have decided that the cost of fixing the problem outweighs the revenue it would bring in.

I don't fault a customer for being disappointed at being on hold for an (reportedly) extended period of time and having a negative impression of ShopSmith.

I don't fault a customer for being tolerant of (reportedly) extended hold times because they know there is a reward at the other end.

I don't think ShopSmith is a bunch of losers because their phone system has (reportedly) extended wait times.

NOTE: I'm qualifying my statements because I'm not a frequent caller, so haven't any of my own data. This is not meant to cast doubt on the reports - just make sure I'm being transparent in my statements. We all have different perceptions of the passage of time.

But - I believe we could all agree that extended wait times for customer calls is generally does not engender customer loyalty or revenue.

But sometimes, as Donald R. said, you go to war with the forces you got not the force you would like to have.

I'm tempted to setup a controlled experiment with a series of scheduled calls to ShopSmith - but that would consume valueable resources for them (time) and possibly interfere with a customer call that would actually help someone.

[dusty]

"Patience Young Grasshopper, Patience"

I too have been placed on hold by I don't hang there for more than two or three minutes. I have either "too much saw dust to make" or "too much saw dust to clean up" to waste my time on hold.

Call back in the morning, unless you are waiting for Wes.

BTW, I believe there are three people in Customer Service; Linda, Jan and David. None of them need any training unless it is on the PowerPro and that won't take long for these folks.

[truxton]

With the recent down turn in the economy I can only imagine the problems at Shopsmith. I and I am sure everyone here hopes they can pull through. With E-Bay and craigslist flooded with used equipment, the big box stores with thier made in china low priced tools they have some compitition. Then you have new people going into the hobby, many not even knowing what a Shopsmith is. Even expierenced woodworkers who have never even used a Shopsmith offering thier ignorant opinions as to how the stationary single purpose tools are so much better. Once Shopsmith had a retail store here in Grand Rapids, we have a woodcraft store now but no Shopsmith on display. I would like to hear some ideas from the people here. You are probably the most knowledgable Shopsmith group anywhere, what can Shopsmith do to survive? Market in the Woodcraft stores, the Ace hardware stores, be more active at shows, TV or youtube infomercials, more activity in the woodworking magazines? I would really like to hear some ideas as to how the greatest woodworking multi tool can be recognized again for what it is.

[dusty]

Market it for what it is. A high quality machine that is uniquely capable of doing precision work in a small shop. Though many professions have them, production woodworking is not their forte. This is truly a DIYer's dream machine.

In case you can not tell, I love my Shopsmith Mark V.

[a1gutterman]

The time waiting to talk to a SS rep is worth it...unless all you want to do is place a "quick" order. If all you want to do is place a "quick" order, you seldom need to talk to a rep, just order on-line or use snail mail. If you need to actually talk to a rep, I wood assume that you want to discuss a problem. When they are talking to you, taking their time to make sure you are satisfied, others are (im)patiently waiting their turn(s). They do knot rush you off of the phone; you can knot expect them to rush others off either. If you can knot wait, hang up and try again at a different time. And do knot forget...it is their nickle!