While most of my blogs are about photography and art, I had something rather stunning happen to me this past month that I want to share. I had bought a Sony TV about 3-4 years ago and had a problem with it 13 months. I thought the cost to fix it was to much so I, being my stubborn self, decided to just not use it. Well when I moved this year I went ahead and carried it to the repair shop and had it fixed for about $485. It worked great that evening but was out again the next morning. I took it back to the shop and wrote a simple tweet on twitter that went something like this "Picked up tv, worked great, out again this morning so back to the shop, thanks Sony". When I got home that night I checked my twitter and noticed I had received a message from Sony's Customer Service asking if they could help. To make a long story short the repair place contacted me and said it was going to be too costly to fix the TV. I replied to Sony via twitter and they called both me and the repair company. The following day they called me back and told me they were covering the current repair bill and they were going to shop me a new TV (I just had to send them the serial number of the existing TV). She said she would call back the next day with the models I could choose from. I thought all of this was too good to be true.... just figured they would send me an old tv that had been refurbished or something. The next day they called me giving me the model of the TV I had wanted when I saw it in the store. The Bravia 52" Flat Screen LCD with built in internet (new, not refurbished). The TV is absolutely amazing. I subscribe to Netflix so I can just send a movie to my instant access que and pull it up on my tv and the quality is amazing.
I have always been loyal to certain companies. Wachovia, even though the nearest one is 2 hours away - Nissan, after 11 years of owning Nissan products I have yet to have to do anything other than replacing a battery, wipers, etc. Canon - Always had great results with them and their customer service. Sony, I have always had Sony televisions and camcorders because I always thought their picture quality was higher.
I read a book recently called Good to Great. It basically researched 1000's of companies and determined what made a good company great. There are good companies, but few can push the threshold of becoming a great company. I am a firm believer in expectations... both setting expectations and meeting them. The companies that were great did not meet expectations, they exceeded them. Well Sony exceeded my expectations. I did not call them, did not complain to them, etc. The found me and took care of the issue quickly while exceeding my expectations. Hopefully I will not need a TV for a while, but I do know the next time I am in the market for a new TV, it will be a Sony.
