Customer Service Found in Studio City

11Jun08

I just had the best experience in customer service since I moved to L.A. - at a local shipping store.

In an era of form email responses and calls routed through Pakistan, you could make the argument that customer service is dead. Maybe it was in the same accident that killed chivalry. No place on earth exemplifies this more than the fantastically bizarre City of Los Angeles.

Everyone is in a hurry. 7-days-a-week in a hurry. They each have more pressing matters than you and everyone else, so stay out of the way. As a result, we have people that cannot use turn signals, cannot use the drive-thru microphone properly, and cannot be bothered with things that have no bearing on their own agenda. But, ocassionally, we are thrown off guard by that one store, that one employee or owner that flies in the face of “that’s so L.A.”

I wish I had asked his name. Hell, I don’t even know the name of the store. It’s a small shipping place on Moorpark next to Sushi 101 in Studio City, near Tujunga Village. I just needed to mail a Father’s Day card. I was greeted with a smile and a half-dozen “yes, sirs” and “thank you, sirs.” The guy was so accommodating, even sending me out the door with the long-forgotten “have a great day.” Something made me buy a book of stamps. Remember those? A sheet full of Ol’ Blue Eyes sitting on my desk to serve as a reminder that customer service still exists in the world, even in L.A.

Or, as reminder that stamps are now 42 cents each, and I just bought 20 of them.

Filed under: City Life   |  
Tags: customer service, moorpark, tujunga village, sushi 101