In Praise of Humans: The Heroes of My Verizon Store @ 191 Bedford Ave in Brooklyn.
I love great customer service, and you can too.
I'm a fan of AI. I believe the revolution will be automated. However, today is one to celebrate human kindness.
I had a great experience. I felt like a real customer. The kind who is always right! Mea Culpa, I am definitely wrong about what the problem was with my phone plan…that these Verizon Team Members fixed on Thursday, March 23rd at 1pm.
I'm recommending you, dear readers, should get a phone with Verizon. Paradoxically, I went there to get help getting off of my Verizon plan because the technology was so catastrophically clunky that it has taken months to figure out how to port the number to AT&T. I’m trying desperately not to change my phone number, which can happen when you have corporate phone plans, subsequent exits, and the like—it's not an obvious risk when you get into start ups, but the struggle is real.
However, what happened in that store, frankly, blew my mind. Humans were really smart, gracious, and help me solve my problem, and then checked their work. To make sure I would have no further problems.
I am so happy with them, and I want the world to know. My team member and I reflected after the fact:
“It was not looking good. We were on the phone for hours yesterday.”
Chief of Staff, Fermata.
It was a dark and stormy day:
Across the street is the Verizon store. Months trying to get the transfer pin code. This was the innermost cave of our hero’s journey.
The entrance, one can see with casual inspection, was not conjuring a sense of institutional stability:
The story, thus far: I have a former phone purchased for a company for whom I no longer work. It was a Verizon…oh my god, it totally doesn't matter. My phone had problems getting a number ported. I had to go to the store after hours on the phone. There was absurdity.
But the guys in the store? They really rocked. Super helpful. And I have learned that when someone does an awesome job, it’s not usually newsworthy. There are many stories about scandals. But the biggest news of my day? Humans went out of their way to help me. And for all the hype about tech, it’s people being awesome to other people that filled me with joy. Thus, my advice:
Did anyone do a great job? Ask to speak to their manager. Tell that manager… how happy you are. Fire off emails to senior management about junior team members. Complaining can be fun. It is not satisfying, however. When people go out of their way, consider leaving a paper trail for that, too.
It took an hour to get my phone transfer PIN code. The reason was dumb. The customer service wasn't. We even bought a phone case we didn’t need. So I’m writing this because I want the world to know, I appreciate it.
These Verizon employees? The V is for check plus:
Thanks!
—Owen Scott Muir, M.D.
P.s. this article was inspired by the kindness of a reader who I had the pleasure of learning from, Amir Kalali, M.D.