We recently bought a new sofa from a well-known company. While paying for the couch, the sales associate told us about the guaranteed smooth delivery process and the eight benefits of the company’s furniture delivery system.
The day after the purchase we got an email receipt and then did not hear from the company for six weeks. A few days before our sofa delivery we got an automated message from a logistics company with no mention of the company we purchased the sofa from (for a few seconds I thought the message was just another spam call and I almost deleted it.) When I called back to schedule delivery, they had a hard time locating my order with any of the numbers on the receipt. The day before the scheduled delivery they called again this time to push off our delivery for two days.
The night before the delivery I was notified of the 4-hour delivery window, and I adjusted my schedule accordingly. But the morning of delivery I got another message that the delivery window was pushed back by two hours, so I rearranged my schedule again.
The delivery men arrived two hours early, in the middle of a conference call. They used a rented truck from Enterprise and the company they worked for was neither the logistics company who scheduled the delivery or the company who sold us the furniture. This third-party seemed unaware of the eight benefits the sales associate outlined. There was a complete mismatch between my expectations and what I actually received which will make me think twice about ordering from that company again.
When we outsource services because it is cheaper than keeping them in-house, we need to understand what we are losing in member service. On the other hand, if we outsource services to another entity because they have more expertise, our members can benefit from greater service. In either case, make sure you know exactly how the third party will impact members and perhaps audit them frequently.
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