Buying Paint: Customer Service Experience

I know that the title seems pretty boring, but I want to share a little story about my recent experience buying house paint. I recently had to go to my local paint store to buy some house paint. I had to buy two different colors. The paint store representative mixed the wrong product in one of the gallons of paint. He was very pleasant and apologized and said that he will remix with the correct product/base. I felt kind of bad for him making the mistake and having to make it again. I didn’t mind waiting a few more minutes while he mixed another gallon. I made a little joke that I will ask around to see if I can find anyone to buy the wasted gallon.

 I was the only customer that he had to look after. The issue with making the mistake, I believe, happened because he was rushing.  He prepared the new paint and got it right the second time. He proceeded to check me out me with correct paint, my filler and tape. After I left the store it occurred to me that he did not offer any additional items that I may have needed for the job; i.e. sandpaper, brushes, rollers, etc.

After all the trouble that he went through to make a replacement gallon I would have probably bought new rollers and sandpaper. It never occurred to me while I was there that I could have used some more sandpaper. The service representative missed the opportunity to make some additional profit to help soften the blow for the loss of a gallon and at the same time he would have helped me out.

All he had to do was ask. In my opinion, all service people should offer a related product with their sales. What do they have to lose by offering? Like me, their customers probably need it; and on many occasions when asked will probably say yes. Bingo! Everybody’s happy.