Chantale and Clinton call for Service- Summary:
Clinton Riley and Chantale Riley were both professional consultants. They had two children,
and the entire family had always been faithful to the Bryand brand of appliances, which was a
proprietary brand of the Canadian, one of Canada's major department store chains. After
purchasing a new refrigerator, the Rileys had poor customer service and began to doubt if they
should continue to be loyal to the Canadian. There were various charges incurred by the
organisation while delivering client services, which had an influence on Riley's appraisal of
their customer experience.
The first type of cost to the Rileys was monetary cost associated with purchasing ice and losing
foods because of fridge malfunction. On June 11, the fridge did not work at the first time bring a
loss around 50 dollars. And the Rileys were told that their loss was excluded in their warranty.
Even though the explanation sounded odd, the Rileys were still grateful that the problem had
been solved relatively quickly. On June 28, the fridge failed again and the Rileys bought some
more ice because of the delay of the repairmen. At this time they began to question their loyal to
the company. The Rileys still needed ice and threw away the deteriorate food until their fridge
finally be fixed on July 5. And the total loss at that time was around 108 dollars. More seriously,
the Rileys already lost their faith and confidence to the company
The second cost was time cost involving in the process of the communication with the company.
When calling the company to ask for the technician, they need to change schedule to make sure
one of them at home waiting for technician arrival. On June 28, Chantale, who had some
errands to run, remained at home for the call until she was told that there was no one coming
today at about 3 pm. On June 29, Clinton cancelled an appointment with a client so that he
would be available when the technician arrived. Due to missing of the more precise regarding
the arrival time of the technician, it cost the Rileys plenty of time waiting for the technician,
which to some degree already affected their normal life. The Rileys became angrier with the
company since it never kept its promise to send a technician on time.
The third cost I would like to call was happiness cost, which was more mental and something
that needed to keep their life happy and healthy. On June 29,due to the delay of repairmen,
Chantale could not prepare a special meal for her brother who lived in France and only
provided leftovers from the previous day. This made Chantale very upset because she could
have had a wonderful dinner with her brother. On July 3, the whole family was quite unhappy
with the situation and tried to make do with a meal prepared with canned goods and bread.
Partly because of the allergies of the youngest child, they were used to preparing their meals
each day, using basic ingredients and found it difficult to continue eating canned food. At this
time, the whole family was aware that their life was a mess and they began to worry about their
health. Even though how deep their loyalty to the company was before, they felt nothing but
angry at the company’s customer services.
The last cost was trust cost. In the process of dealing with the company, the Rileys’ trust of the
company disappeared eventually. They had called so many times but they’re always different
personnel answering the phone. Apparently the service department and the repair department
did not communicate with each other by phone but only in writing. The Rileys felt that the
company did not care about customers and at this point they had no faith or confidence in the
way the matter was being handled. Their request was not been taken until July 5. And their
relationship with the company that had last for so many years broke and they for sure decided
to choose another supply company.
As a result of above mentioned event, the company's customer service has degraded
significantly. From June 13 to July 5, the corporation had adequate time to adapt and reclaim
their clients. We can observe that the company's faith and confidence (or, in other words,
loyalty) was eroding gradually. Eventually, the firm's most devoted consumers became
strangers with no ties to the company. The corporation should strengthen its supervision of the
customer service department and implement regulations to ensure that it operates efficiently
and with the best interests of the consumers in mind.