March 13, 2008

My Testimonial

Have I mentioned how difficult New Mexico was? Did I mention how you could try and buy something? You would have money and wish to be parted with it. However, people wouldn’t take it. Be it an hour line at Wal-Mart to unavailability at a doctor’s office until 2011 to a lack of original chicken at KFC. When you left the comfort of your mold-ridden, 1970’s throwback apartment, you (and, of course, I mean me) knew that life was about to be difficult. You were going to have to get angry. And be aggressive. (BE AGGRESSIVE!! BE BE AGGRESSIVE!! Look at my imaginary Herkie!)

You knew you wouldn’t get what you want, when you want it, for the price you wanted it, how you wanted it.

The starkest contrast you can imagine is Mattress Mac.

Jim McIngvale is my hero.

Anyone in the Houston area is now saying ME TOO, ME TOO!

You go to his store. You cannot miss it. There are big signs and lots of lights and it is a huge building.

You walk in, say hi to the 17 people waiting to help you. They offer you a bottle of water. You can shake hands with Mattress Mac himself who is in the store every day despite being a gazillionaire. He answers phones, hands out water bottles, makes store announcements. Despite being 131 years old. (OMG! I just looked it up. He is actually just a year older than my dad. Ok, fine, he isn’t old, but all that crazy jumping in the 80’s TV commercials took their toll. Just saying.)

So..back to the story. You walk in. You are helped immediately. Offered a cold refreshing beverage. And are shown to what you want. Immediately.

There is a chick whose entire job is to walk around the store offering ice cream in a variety of choices. Ice Cream Sandwich? Push Pop? What is your poison? Can you imagine what an amazing job this is? I want her job.

When I was shown this apartment, I, for reals, stood in the stairway that leads into it, and held my hands at my hips and measured how much weight I could gain before I wouldn’t fit up the stairs. It isn’t much.

The stairway…is a problem.

We informed our furniture sales guru about our stairway and the lack of inch-age. He laughed. And we told him we were serious. And he may have frowned. But then…he showed us a couch. And another and another and another and 27 others.

And they would fit. Yes they would!

So we bought some furniture. A lot actually.

We tried to buy a couch in Dallas last year. We really wanted to buy one. We offered cash. We offered extended credit terms. We offered first borns. We wanted to give them a couple grand, but there was no way they would give us a couch without making us wait 3 weeks. We couldn’t buy a floor model. We were told to wait 3 weeks. No other choice. No couches to be had on the same day. They refused to take our money and give us what we wanted.

Gallery Furniture? They have billboards everywhere in Houston simply with the word Today.

Today? Today, you say?

If you buy before 10 P.M., you get your couch that day.

We left Gallery at 6 P.M. We went home. Cleaned up the place. Moved the camping chairs out of the way. And a few hours later, a knock on the door.

Professional, well-spoken, furniture delivery men dropped off all the furniture that we had bought just a couple hours earlier. They set everything up super quick. And disappeared like bandits.

This is what happened.

Begin Story:

We bought furniture. It was delivered a couple hours later.

End Story.

Mattress Mac is freaking genius. He offers quality products at a good price. He makes you comfortable in his store. His salespeople are professional, well-spoken, not pushy. He delivers the stuff you bought when you want it. He doesn’t make you wait if you need it right away. He will hold it if you aren’t ready.

He makes the entire buying process simple.

I wish more businesses followed such a simple business model. It really is amazing that I am blown away by his business.

Why is it so unique?

Give the customers what they want. They will come back for more. They will tell their friends and family. They will write blog posts about it.

It truly blows my mind that I am so blown away by this type of service.

Is it really that extraordinary? Why?

You give people what they want, in a friendly manner. The end.

So, tell me about your life? What customer service blew you away? What crappy service made you want to go psycho?

And Jag, if you are still alive, could you find some of the old school footage of Save You Money videos. I think Mac may have put a hit out on whoever had those. They are nowhere to be found on Youtube. This is the best compilation I could find with footage of the jumping.


5 comments:

Kaytabug said...

ok, that video was a lil scary.

I am happy for you, finally getting the furniture you want when you want how you want it!!

Sauntering Soul said...

That song gave me a bit of a headache. But yippee for furniture!

I worked for a furniture company for 13 years and our customer service sucked in comparison. But my goodness we had some crazy customer complaint calls when I worked at the corporate office. One lady tried to sue us because she said her new mattress ruined her sex life and her husband left her. Uhm, I doubt it was a new mattress. Another person called and said their hearing aid fell out in a store and went under a sofa cushion and the salesperson took it and would not give it back to them. WTH?

Courtney said...

You totally need to post pictures of your new goods!!

Margaret said...

Mattress Mac is amazing. I have been there twice, and it was exactly as you described. Amazing. But I'm not sure he needs all those flags.

Anonymous said...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3089666033909962691&q=save+you+money+matress&total=15&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=5&hl=en

 
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