Flywheel: Rock Star Customer Service

Last week I was in Seattle for ICMI’s annual ACCE conference and spent Tuesday bookended by very public speeches to our community. During both occasions I had the absolute pleasure of speaking alongside my dear friend and 'rock star', Dayna Steele. She's many, many things, but she's notably a Hall of Fame rock radio personality and an author - "101 Ways to Rock Your World". It's important to note that while we rightfully paid her for the morning keynote, she did the evening event entirely as a favor. Although ICMI has honored the rock stars of our industry through the Global Call Center awards for several years, this was our first foray into an accompanying dinner and ceremony. Dayna wanted to be a part of the celebration and eagerly jumped in as our amazing emcee. And here's a shameless plug for her great little book - It was a situation where I, verbalized what I wanted or needed to another person, (Tip #17, Page 33), and she said yes, (Tip #29, Page 51), and did something to help someone else be successful (Tip #37, Page 61).

Two mornings later I was at Flywheel Sports, my favorite cycling studio when I am traveling, and was perusing their retail line before class started. I only intended to buy something for my killer cycle instructor at home, when I saw it. It was the perfect gift, for the perfect rock star. Except there was a little problem...they did not have it in Dayna’s size (she's tiny). The front desk person at Flywheel also seemed a little flustered with my sizing and shipping requests, and the experience was leaving me wanting. But considering that their forte is booty-kicking and not selling clothes, I took it as a sign and let it be. Except that I didn't. I kept thinking about this perfect gift, from one of my favorite places, for one of my favorite people.

When I returned home, I tried purchasing it from their website, but Flywheel doesn't have an online store. I then tried calling the nearest studio in Charlotte, and that again proved unsuccessful. So I did what many of us do and I went social. I posted my needs on Facebook.

Within 45 minutes, I had a response telling me to send in an email to a relatively generic address. I admittedly thought I'd send a request into an email black hole, but I decided to play along. Imagine my delight and surprise when the response from Natalie, the Flywheel Director of Retail Operations in NYC came within 2 hours. After some quick back-and-forth, she forwarded me over to the actual store that had my item in stock. Less than an hour later, Melissa the Studio Manager in Plano, Texas emailed me to say she'd call me between 3.30-4p to get my credit card number and confirm the shipping address. At 3.35p she called. Melissa was an absolute pleasure to talk with and seemed genuinely excited when I explained why that particular item was so representative of my appreciation for Dayna. "From one rock star, to another", I said.

And then Melissa took my customer-service-loving self and threw her to the floor. "Is it OK if I don't get this mailed out until tomorrow?” she asked. “I will be happy to run this to the post office today if you need me to. But you see, we're having tornado warnings right now and some really bad hail. The tornado sirens haven't gone off yet, so I can still try to make it today!" No, no, no! Please don't risk your life for a sweatshirt, you amazing human being. As much as I appreciate it, I now appreciate you that much more.

Yes, that really did just happen. Thank you, Flywheel. Thank you, Dayna. That customer experience was so great and memorable that I just publicly disclosed my surprise gift to Dayna. I know she'll think it was worth it, because according to her I should share, (Tip#92), and say thank you (Tip #52). I did, and I thank you.