Xerox.

In my position, I regularly work with companies of many sizes. Sometimes, regardless of the size and influence of the organisation I work for, whatever task I am trying to accomplish seems to fall through the cracks. With larger companies, like Xerox, it can (somewhat understandably) happen a little more often. Unfortunately, escaping from whatever dead end I’ve run into can turn into a nightmare.

I was a little terrified that a (relatively) small issue with Xerox was heading that way. I was frustrated with their telephone menus, disappointed with their customer service representatives, and nearly fed up with the infinite loop I had managed to become trapped in.

(As an aside, handling something as relatively insignificant as a supplies order isn’t normally something I have time to deal with. However, the printer that is at the centre of this whole debacle was my pet purchase, and, as such, I feel a particular responsibility at this point for making sure it lives up to the expectations I set for it. And so far, bureaucratic corporate wrangling aside, it absolutely has. Back to the point…)

I was just about ready to give up, when I played the last resort Trump card: call the corporate headquarters number and plead my case to the switchboard operator.

“Help,” I said. “I’m moments away from calling the freight company and shipping our $15,000 printer straight back to Rochester, and it’s all because of a simple $300 invoice.” Her empathetic, compassionate voice responded, quickly, and confidently: “Well, we can’t have that! Let me get someone to help you right away.”

Sure enough, in only moments, a senior executive at Xerox was listening to my rambling every concern. Within an hour, this whole situation was on its way to resolution.

Not everything is picture perfect. How many people just give up? I hope not a lot, but the corporate number for Xerox is buried a few pages into their website, and certainly none of the incredibly unhelpful representatives at the toll-free call centres volunteered it. Still, the escalation path was efficient, and it really seems like Xerox has a system in place to make sure word of customer experiences, good and bad, make it to to very top of their orgchart. I’d like to think it’s one of the reasons that they’re our preferred vendor in (almost) every market they have products in. (Of course, the fact that their products also have great ROI also helps!)

So here’s to Xerox, my good company of the week (or however often I find reason to praise or heckle other companies).