Customer service beyond the call of duty inspires

Amitabh Mehta

This is a heart-warming, feel-good story from Noel Leeming (of The Warehouse Group) Store at Sylvia Park, the largest shopping complex in New Zealand.

This story sets an exceptional example in customer service.

This is about Viraf Todywalla, who has inspired us, with his motto of optimising customer satisfaction, even if it means extraordinary efforts.

Ray Hookway, an elderly customer, visited our Store and purchased a Panasonic Blu-Ray Player recently.

Thereafter, he spent a lot of time but could not get it working.

Technical Assistance

He visited the Store again and explained his concerns to Viraf.

Viraf reported to Sonu Singh, Manager on Duty, who realised that Mr Hookway needs assistance but no technician was available for the next two days. He requested Viraf to help the customer.

Viraf visited the residence of Mr Hookway on the same day and found that the customer’s existing old Panasonic Television had become faulty, which needed repair and hence was not connecting with the Blu-Ray Player.

During the conversation, Viraf learnt that the elderly customer had recently undergone knee-replacement surgery and watching television was his main source of entertainment.

Viraf informed Mr Hookway about the situation. He felt sad about the fact that Mr Hookway could not watch the film (DVD) that he had purchased to watch until his television was repaired. To make it worse, it was a Friday.

Viraf went home and took his personal 55” television, all by himself and installed it with the Blu-Ray Player for Mr Hookway.

On the following day, he realised that he could not arrange for the repair of Mr Hookway’s television through Noel Leeming, as a normal procedure, since the television set was not purchased from them.

No Panic at Panasonic

Therefore, Viraf contacted Panasonic and explained the situation.

Panasonic agreed to consider the issue as a special case.

Viraf was happy that he could help someone in need while following Noel Leeming’s core value of ‘Making Kiwi Lives Better.’

The Television set was repaired and delivered to Mr Hookway just one day before his 83rd Birthday, which made him a very happy customer.