My car was broken into last week, just a few days before Christmas. Bah humbug.
While undeniably sad, it’s not the first time this has happened. It’s become something I expect to occur about once per year. That’s life in the big city, bub.
The only worthwhile thing missing was my Sirius satellite radio. This having been my third radio lost to a break-in, I knew the drill: call customer service and have them list my radio as stolen. At least no one will be able to get any use out of it.
I told the Sirius representative that I wasn’t ready to buy a new radio yet, and that I wanted to deactivate the old radio. Surprisingly, he immediately escalated my call to the finance department, ostensibly to mark my account as one that would still let me listen to Sirius programming over the Internet while I mulled over the idea of buying a new radio.
To my amazement, the finance rep had a deal for me: We’ll ship you a refurbished $150 radio and throw in three months of service for the low, low price of… nothing.
Did I hear that right? I wasn’t even asking.
Like other smart businesses that sell subscription-based services, Sirius knows that if I stop subscribing for even a second, it’s a safe bet that I won’t be back. Once I’m gone, I won’t be letting them have access to my credit card every month. Kudos to Sirius for making me reconsider what I was — admittedly — considering: going back to regular old radio (or my old cassette deck — got to get some use out of those boxes of tapes someday!). Double kudos to Sirius for unloading their old inventory through their customer service channel as freebies and incentives to encourage customer retention. Smart.
Sure enough, when I got off the phone, Sirius had e-mailed me the invoice for my “order.” And sure enough, everything is free, even the shipping.
I’ve always been a Sirius enthusiast. Now, I’m practically a Sirius evangelist. I admit that I’ve had a few not-so-great customer service experiences with them in the past, but things seem to be getting better. Would I say that if I weren’t waiting for a free radio to show up on my doorstep? Probably not.
How about you? Have any customer service experiences like this? The kind that change your mind about customer service — in a positive way?
[ Sirius is on Satisfaction. ]
3 Comments
Same thing happened to me a few weeks ago, except I’m not in the big city. I received my replacement within a week–the day before we were scheduled to drive across the country. The drive was made much more bearable by the presence of satellite radio, btw. With one ten minute phone call handled correctly, they’ve made me a loudmouth happy customer…
Eric, great post! I’m forwarding this to our head of user communications, as this is exactly the type of culture we want to setup.
You think Sirius is reading your post now and gloating? :)
Thanks, Andrew. I am a former XM subscriber, and I can say for sure that my switch to Sirius feels even better in hindsight as I see that they’re embracing new technologies and more expansive approaches to customer service, retention, and overall business practices. They should gloat. They know that they are not in the radio business and that it’s not about music formats; they’re in the content business, and they have a unique network that isn’t subject to the old rules. Hurrah, that.
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[…] After my bummer of a car break-in, there’s a silver lining after all. See the Get Satisfaction blog for the scoop. […]
[…] I read an interesting story about Sirius Satellite Radio the other day. For them and this particular experience, being cheap actually ended up making them more money. […]