3M Copier Service
While working for a company that sold business products, I received a call from one of my customers who was furious with our service department. She informed me that she had called for service on a copy machine on two different occasions and that no one ever came out. Their work had backed up because of neglect from our company. When you are in sales, you know that you must work closely with the service department to make your customers happy. We had not had any problems before, so her complaint concerned me. At first I thought there must be some kind of mistake. However, she had a written record of the days she called and who she had talked to. She had all the right numbers and all the right names. When I saw her records, I too became upset with the service department and expressed that frustration to my supervisor when he came to visit.
On the way to visit this disgruntled customer together, he told me to remember that there are always two sides to a story. I reminded him that this lady had kept a record of her calls and that it was obvious to me that our service department was at fault. He calmly gently said again that there are always two sides to a story. I thought in this case he had too much company loyalty. When we got to the office of the dissatisfied customer, we went straight to the lady with the complaint. She pulled out her records and showed my supervisor the day she had called and who she had talked to requesting service on the copy machine. She again expressed her anger at our company.
My supervisor asked to use her phone to call our service department. He asked them to explain why they had not responded to this customer’s call. As they talked, the real story began to emerge. Yes, she had called requesting service on her company’s copier. However, the service agreement had expired on the company copy machine and they had chosen not to renew it. When the lady called for service on the machine the first time, the service manager called her supervisor and informed him that the service agreement had run out and wanted to know if they still wanted someone to come out and fix the machine. Her supervisor told him that they did not want to fix the problem with the machine at this time. However, he failed to tell the employees under his supervision of his decision. When the lady called back the second time, the same procedure was followed, and again the service was refused by the supervisor.
My frustration at our service department was without merit. I was off base in what had really happened. I made no effort to find out the truth of the situation, but immediately judged my people harshly. I learned that day that there are always two sides to a story. We should withhold judgment until we have fully heard both sides.
