I had been a loyal Sony customer for 10 years. I always thought of Sony as the "Apple" of Windows PCs.
Cementing Loyalty
A few years ago, I fell in love with a lightweight Sony Vaio laptop. Because I bought it for business use, I purchased an extended warranty.
I wasn't used to its small size or minimal 2.5 pounds and found myself calling service when I inadvertently shattered the LCD screen.
The service experience was truly wonderful. Sony sent me a pre-paid shipping box, handled the repairs quickly, and had the laptop back to me quickly as promised.
Not only did I love their stylish products, I loved their responsive service.
Paid-for Loyalty isn't Real Loyalty
A couple of years ago, I bought a pricey Sony Alpha digital camera. Because I had my previous Minolta camera for 20 years without incident, I did not purchase an extended warranty. I wasn't expecting any problems.
I was pretty happy with the camera. It was fairly easy-to-use and took gorgeous photos. After a while, a few small problems started cropping up - mostly related to battery access. I recalled that on purchase of my camera, the Sony store updated the camera software. Perhaps a more recent software update would fix these problems.
The Sony web site gave instructions regarding the software update. However, the warnings were quite deterring. If you installed the software incorrectly, you could render the camera inoperable. So, I took the camera to the Sony store and had the Sony staff install the update.
Shortly thereafter, I took the camera on a hike with me and ran into some very serious problems. Photos taken were saturated in magenta. The camera seemed to labor when auto-focusing. Sometimes, I couldn't get the camera to focus on a subject at all. Though the camera worked, something had gone seriously wrong. The only thing that had changed since it last worked was the software update. Reasonably, I attributed the new problems to the software update.
I called Sony service about the problem. I told them the whole story - about the recent software installation. A technician asked me a series of questions to try to diagnose the problems. Very quickly we got to the end of their questions with no resolution.
And here is where Sony lost my customer loyalty...
Because no one else had experienced the problems with the camera on software update that I had, Sony's presumption was that I had broken the camera. I spoke with a customer relationship manager who didn't seem to know that I was a long-time Sony customer. She wasn't willing to see the customer's side of the issue. As far as Sony was concerned, I didn't have an extended warranty. I was on my own.
As my displeasure escalated, Sony suggested that I send in the camera (at my expense) and they would run diagnostics to see if they could pinpoint the problem. For the type of problem I was experiencing, I could expect the repair to cost a whopping $458.
Its Not About Automation, Its About Attitude
With a very small alteration in their attitude, Sony could have further built my loyalty rather than destroy it. To achieve essentially the same results, they could have responded,
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"Gee, we haven't had anyone experience that type of problem with this software update before. Why don't you send it in and we'll do a diagnosis for free. If the problem isn't caused by the software update, we'll give you an estimate for the repair work."
Sony lost my loyalty because of their arrogant, customer-is-at-fault attitude. I can't ever imagine experiencing that with Apple.
All that I wanted was openness by Sony to consider that they had a problem and to offer to take some ownership of helping get it fixed. Especially for such an expensive product, less than two years into its life.
In the days of the botched Toyota ghost acceleration recall, it seems that big business still has a lot to learn about customer loyalty.
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