What an Outstanding Customer Experience Feels Like

A few years ago, my favorite sunglasses were discovered by my dog, Zeus. We had just adopted him, and for inexplicable reasons, he decided to take my Maui Jim sunglasses from a table and chew them. The lenses were intact and undamaged, but one side of the frame was mangled. I put them in their case and forgot about them.

We sold our house and moved to another one. I was rummaging through boxes one day, and I re-discovered the Maui Jims Zeus had chewed. I was going to throw them away when my wife wondered if they could be repaired.

I went to the Maui Jim website and found that they could be repaired if they weren't too severely mangled. The only way I would know for sure was to pay a small fee, package them up, and send them to Maui Jim for inspection. Fingers crossed, I sent them in, expecting the worse.

Two days later, I got an email that the sunglasses had arrived at the Maui Jim repair center. Within a few hours (7:15am), I received a text message from Melissa letting me know that they could be repaired, but the frame color couldn't be matched. Melissa provided me with two options. The first option was to pay a slightly higher fee and replace the frames with another color. The second option was a 50% discount on any pair of sunglasses on MauiJim.com.

I decided to pay the extra fee, replace the frames, and hope for the best. At least now I had hope. I replied to Melissa at 7:33am on a Thursday. At 7:35am, Melissa responded with a message informing me that I would receive my repaired sunglasses within 2 business days.

I was overjoyed. My Maui Jims are easily the best sunglasses I've ever owned.

Part of my childhood was spent growing up on Oahu, and the experience was indelible. I am the product of an Army family and lived in Mililani Town and Schofield Barracks. I went to high school in Wahiawa at Leilehua High School (go Mules! ). Needless to say, I spent a lot of time at the beach, especially the North Shore. I know the sun's intense glare on the water and the beach can be grueling. My Maui Jims are superb at cutting through the sun's glare at the beach or on the water.

I received an email indicating my sunglasses were shipped and provided the tracking code the same day. My thought was that the repair must not have been as bad as I imagined, and I looked forward to wearing them again.

The sunglasses arrived on Saturday (within 2 days as promised). I eagerly opened the box, expecting to see my old lenses in new frames. But I was blown away because these weren't my repaired Maui Jims; they were brand new!

Maui Jim didn't have to do that. They could have told me the sunglasses are unrepairable and apologized. And I would have accepted that response. But they didn't, because Maui Jim is playing the long game. They want customers for life, not just for one transaction.

Maui Jim won me over with a great product. They made me a customer for life with a genuinely world-class customer service experience ('world-class' is so overused, but I mean it here - the bar is set high).

What kind of customer experience are you giving your customers? Are they writing articles or posting on social media praising your efforts?

——-

I want to thank Maui Jim for their outstanding customer service and a special thank you to Melissa for the quick turnaround of the 'repair'. Mahalo nui loa.