Business Resolutions

Applauding Good Service

1-23-13 WOSO Commentary

It is said that comments regarding a bad product or service spreads out to at least 8 persons whereas communications on good products and services are rarely communicated. In order to somewhat balance this scale, I would like to describe my recent very positive experience.

I had given my brief talk to the public school students attending the Model UN Conference at the UPR Cayey campus and had an early lunch with the UNA USA PR Executive Director, Ricardo Arzuaga, My next appointment was a golf invitation for my brother in law Guillermo Estella in appreciation for his handling so well my new consultant technological issues. My Chrysler Sebring would not start nor would the transmission move out of Park. About three years ago I had a similar problem involving a plastic part that had to be replaced. It was about 11:30 am and I was a good hour and a half from the Dorado Beach golf course.

I called the service department of Flagship Chrysler, a Bella Group affiliate, and we confirmed that it was that same plastic part and that I would need to have the car towed to the dealership on the western side of Bayamón. He gave me the name of a recommended towing company but I remembered that my insurance policy provided for emergency assistance. Sure enough, with my car registration was the Antilles Insurance Assist number and a list of the emergency items covered, including towing services and car rental if the car had to be left at the dealer for repair.

I called Antilles Assist and in less than an hour the tow truck arrived. Not only did the tow truck arrive on schedule but Antilles Assist proactively followed up to confirm that I had received timely and competent towing services. The young tow truck driver was very efficient and friendly. He took the car and me to the Flagship Chrysler. Tow trucks are relatively slow and quite rough, but you can’t have everything.  

Although both the tow truck driver and the dealer offered to drive me back to my apartment in the San Patricio area, I still wanted to go ahead with the golf date at Dorado Beach and so the two options were to rent a car at the Bella Group Car Rental desk at the dealership or have my son in law Guillermo pick me up since the dealer is on the way to Dorado Beach.  I decided to rent the car since my car would probably not be ready until at least Tuesday. In addition, it sounded like my car insurance would reimburse me for the rental car for up to 4 days and $300.

The process for accepting my Chrysler and renting the Honda Fit took about 20 minutes, and I was soon on my way to meet with Guillermo at Dorado Beach where we got in 12 holes of golf.

The Bella Car Rental person mentioned that there would be a daily insurance charge unless she received by fax or e-mail on Monday a certificate from Antilles Insurance. I called Doris Amoros at Anglo/Antilles Monday morning with the request and in about an hour she copied me on the e-mail to Bella Car rental. The person at Bella Car confirmed by phone that she had what she needed from Antilles.   

On Monday morning around 10:30 am the Flagship Chrysler person called to advise that he had to order the part which would arrive the next day and that the car would be ready on Wednesday.  I had asked them to check on a couple of other minor matters and to provide the recommended maintenance items for the mileage. He reported on what they had found and gave a quote which I accepted. Luckily on Wednesday afternoon we had a family activity in Dorado and we were able to deliver the rental car and pick up the Chrysler Sebring on the way to Dorado.       

In short, these are three service companies (Antilles Insurance affiliated with Anglo Puerto Rican Insurance Corp, the towing company Antilles contracted, and Bella Group with its two affiliates Flagship Chrysler and Bella Car Rental) that gave me outstanding service – they responded in a timely matter, provided an estimate of cost and time to accomplish the service, and met their estimate. The service was courteous and it was clear that they were experts in their area of service.

Service like this converts what could be a negative and stressful experience into a positive one. It needs to be applauded at the personal/private level with those who rendered the service and at the public level in order to balance all the negativism one is peppered with all the time.  We must not limit ourselves to criticizing the bad, albeit constructively; we need to applaud the good. Both are necessary and help make us more effective.