To the rescue…

I broke down the other night. Far from a disaster, it turned out to be one of the best examples of customer service I’ve probably ever had. Talk about ‘seamless’ – it was completely ‘frictionless’ (to use two popular cliches) in every way!

OK, so the circumstances weren’t exactly traumatic. I was driving into the local gym around 8pm when suddenly the steering went and smoke started coming out of the bonnet. I calculated that if I called esure straight away, I could jump into the gym and get at least half a workout under my belt (I later found out it was my fan belt that had gone, but no pun intended). The huge glass windows which look out onto the car park and the fact that some of the cross trainers face in the right direction meant that I’d be able to spot the breakdown van as soon as it arrived.

Just a couple of minutes after placing the call (while working out on the cross trainer!) I got a text giving me the estimated time of arrival and the name of the company sending out the breakdown vehicle.

Just 20 minutes into my workout, I saw the vehicle approaching. I leaped out and caught up with the driver.

Not only was he brilliantly helpful in every way, but he had been driving Volvos for the last 20 years (yes, I shamefacedly admit that I’ve been driving what is now a clapped out Volvo for the last 13 years). He lifted the bonnet (he knew where to find the release instantly – I didn’t, of course) and identified the fan belt issue along with a broken pulley. It got better. He knew a garage up the road which he’d been using for years and which did a brilliant job on Volvos. He towed me up the road and magician-like he produced a key to the yard so that he could leave my car inside the garage, ready for repair and meaning that I didn’t need to fret about parking. He posted my keys and some documents through the letter box – job done.

He drove me home and that was that. By 8am the following morning I’d already had a voicemail from the garage summarising the repairs with total cost.

Impressed? You bet. Not only was it the best customer service I’ve ever experienced, but I’ve also got myself a new place for my MOT/annual service. PLUS I got to ride in a big breakdown truck. Every girl’s Yorkie Bar moment come true! What’s more from the moment I made the call to esure to the time I got dropped off at home, we’re probably counting no more than an hour and a bit. Shorter than my average gym work out! OK, so the guy’s Volvo knowledge was fortuitous, but the experience was already a pretty impressive one and that was the icing on the cake.

Armed with all the best data and insight in the world, I’m not sure esure could have made this any better. While having the necessary infrastructure to deliver service of this kind is absolutely fundamental, sometimes it’s that element of magic that can’t be planned that makes a good experience great.