01 Mar March at Experienced Goods

by Jennie Reichman

It’s that time of year when it is honestly a little hard to figure out what to write about. It seems to happen when we are past all the exciting holidays; have settled into winter and its routines, challenges and quiet pleasures; and are starting to get that niggling itch to be done with cold weather clothing, especially (in my case) socks. Experienced Goods is bubbling along; we are busy orchestrating the transition to spring clothing by stocking the racks with brighter colors and lighter fabrics, which makes everyone’s eyes happy. There are no big changes on the horizon, and all of us are doing our parts to keep the gears running smoothly and to make shopping fun and satisfying. So what shall I bring to you, dear readers, to pique your interest and keep you curious about the latest chapter of “As The Thrift Store Turns”? How about this: Customer Service.

I recently read an op-ed piece in the New York Times about robo-calls, those maddening phone calls made by, in many cases, a computer, although sometimes by a live person, with the specific intention to either sell you something or in some cases to scam you into giving out personal information that puts you at risk for identity theft or worse. Spam used to be an over-salted, canned meat product, but now it is a warning that pops up on my cell phone screen: Spam Risk. It has become a frustrating part of modern life. I have actually stopped answering my home phone, letting the answering machine take the call and only picking up when the caller is clearly someone I want to talk to. The author of the op-ed piece wrote about how some scammers will even represent themselves as someone entirely different than who they really are, say your doctor’s office or a local business, in order to gain access to your information. It’s despicable and a sad fact that we have to be aware of and protect ourselves from this deception. In contrast, I got to thinking about how Experienced Goods approaches phone calls and, by extension, customer service.

We answer the phone probably upwards of seventy-five times a day, doing our best to pick up before the answering machine does, and answering with calm cheerfulness. Sometimes every single caller has the exact same question, but we answer every time as if that caller’s question is unique. And it is, really, because they know nothing about the 15 previous calls we have fielded. Some callers require a little more time and patience because they have never donated to or shopped at a thrift store before and need a thorough explanation of how the system works. Some people have stories to tell about the items they want to donate and who they belonged to, or want to talk about how their loved one passed away while under Hospice care and what a difference that care made to everyone involved. Some people are good Samaritans who see a need in the community and call on us to help out, like the local auto mechanic who recently called on behalf of a teacher looking for snow pants for one of her students. Every call, no matter the length or complexity of the interaction, is an attempt on our part to hear what the caller needs and to do our best to meet that need. And when you call Experienced Goods, unless we aren’t able to get to the phone or you are calling outside regular business hours, you will talk to a real, live person, not an automated answering system.

In addition to having excellent phone skills, we are also champs when it comes to going the extra customer service mile. We have been known to help customers carry their purchase to their cars, go on a search for items that were donated by mistake, give fashion advise, explain the uses of a piece of kitchen equipment, dig up a lightbulb to test a lamp, measure bedsheets. And during these months of COVID and quarantine, we have found ourselves unofficially partnering with teachers, therapists and other helpers in our community who have students or clients in need of clothing or household goods.

To those compassionate people and to all the many customers and donors who support Brattleboro Area Hospice, we extend a huge “Thank you!” for bringing to the Brattleboro area the antidote to impersonal robocalls: Kindness and humanity.