The Tri-State Area’s Elite Customer Service. Always.
When COVID Hit, We Had To Put Our Elite
Customer Service Skills Into Overdrive
How We Stayed The Course When A Situation
Beyond Our Control Caused Serious Delays
When COVID hit in 2020, it put a serious strain on the process of getting replacement windows in the Tri-State area. That’s no surprise, given the pandemic’s widespread effects on supply chains and labor nationwide.
What kinds of issues were we dealing with here at Window Shopping? Slowed production at our window suppliers’ factories and seriously delayed deliveries to us.
Naturally, these issues had a major impact on our ability to serve our customers.
As a company that prides itself on timely, expert installations, it was agonizing to experience weeks or months of delivery delays. And it was just as agonizing to pass the bad news on to homeowners waiting to get their projects underway.
The situation was sometimes challenging in the extreme. Nevertheless, we did what we always do – stayed professional and made every effort to fulfill our customers’ needs.
COVID’s Impact On The Replacement Window Business
The pandemic was tough on Tri-State area window companies in more ways than one. Like many other housing-related industries, our sector experienced a notable drop-off in sales.
But there was also another serious issue – maintaining our incoming window supply.
Even the most automated window factories rely heavily on human labor. This made our industry doubly vulnerable to the pandemic’s effects.
Suddenly, some of the windows that usually took two or three weeks to reach us were taking far longer to arrive. What’s more, we couldn’t always accurately gauge what products we could get and when we could get them.
This left us with a huge service-related concern. How could we explain what was happening without making our customers feel they were being left out in the cold?
We knew our only choice was to be honest and transparent about the situation. In every case, we gave as much information as we had available. We also asked our customers to bear with us as we did our best to fill their orders.
Customer Reactions From Across The Tri-State Area
How did our customers respond to our explanations? As you might imagine, the reactions were varied.
By providing as much detail as possible, we helped ease a lot of concerns and fears. Disappointment was still high. However, in most cases, our customers took the bad news pretty well.
Of course, that wasn’t always true. Understandably, some of our Tri-State area customers were more than a little upset. After all, it can be extremely difficult to stomach months-long delays on a much-needed replacement window project.
This occasionally led to some very hard conversations. In fact, during that long stretch of months, we sat through a good deal of spicy language and colorful metaphors.
Were we stressed out by calls like these? Absolutely.
Did we let them alter our ironclad commitment to professionalism in all circumstances? Absolutely not.
Your Professional Window Replacement Company
What do you do when a customer is expressing their displeasure in the frankest terms possible? That depends on who you are.
At some companies, staffers might break under the pressure. As a result, they might say or do things that reflect poorly on themselves and the company they work for.
But that’s never the case at Window Shopping.
Even in the most trying conversations, our experienced staff did what they were trained to do. In other words, they acted as true professionals and worked hard to help our customers.
That wasn’t always easy. But it was essential. The way we see it, if we’re not willing to weather tough situations, we’re in the wrong line of work.
With this as our firm bottom line, we stayed the course. Months later, when things started returning to normal, we were able to restore our everyday operations. And we did so knowing that our commitment to elite customer service was fully intact.
Want this level of service from your replacement window company? Contact Window Shopping today for a free estimate on your upcoming project. In good times and bad, we’re dedicated to maintaining exceptional professional standards in the Tri-State area!