Sears Gets "It"

I recently purchased a new dishwasher from Sears and had it installed by one of their technicians. After he left I noticed that the installation was not to my liking and I had him come back to make some corrections.

Two weeks later my plumber was installing a new faucet. He redid the dishwasher hook-ups as they weren't done to his liking.

Days later Sears called the house to inquire about our satisfaction with the dishwasher installation. They were calling I'm sure based on the return trip their installer had to make. My wife - aka "the Fabulous One" - told them about our plumber redoing some of their work. The call ended and the "FO" (hey, every nickname needs a nickname) never gave it another thought.

A week or so later a Sears representative called back with questions about the work the plumber performed. The rep asked me to fax them the invoice so they could assess it and determine how much of it they would pay.

I'm sharing this story and praising Sears before I really know how it's going to turn out. But the calls were enough to get my attention in a good way. The "FO" summed it up with "I'm so impressed with Sears".

Now one might quibble with the timing of the calls or that the work hadn't been done right the first time. But we all know stuff happens. The point is, Sears cared enough to ask about our experience and then took action without prompting or follow-up.

What would your company have done? Do you have the philosophy and processes in place to be proactive when a customer isn't satisfied?

Let's see how much of the plumber's bill they pick up.

UPDATE: Sears has agreed to pay for all the parts and an hour of labor for the repair work which is totally fair from my perspective. We remain impressed.