{"id":2923,"date":"2013-02-20T08:44:35","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T06:44:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/?p=2923"},"modified":"2013-02-20T08:44:35","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T06:44:35","slug":"glass-half-full-better-place-transforms-station-error-into-customer-service-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/2013\/02\/glass-half-full-better-place-transforms-station-error-into-customer-service-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Glass Half Full \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Better Place Transforms Station Error into Customer Service Case Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Better<\/a>Hey Better Place electric car aficionados: ever wonder what would happen if you pulled into one of the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fully automated battery swap stations and it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work? Well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here to tell the tale. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a classic glass half empty\/half full situation. Half empty: the station broke down and we weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t able to get the fresh battery we needed at midnight. Half full: Better Place has really great customer service.<\/p>\n

The full story: we were driving back to Jerusalem from a bar mitzvah party in Rehovot. We left relatively early because we knew we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to swap batteries before climbing the hill home. We asked OSCAR, our electric car \u00e2\u20ac\u0153operating system\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and friendly GPS where the most convenient swap station was. Anava Junction, it replied, near where Highways 1 and 431 intersect.<\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve swapped at Anava before and, in the past, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always been a station attendant present. But Better Place is phasing out that staff (they had mostly been doing quality assurance anyway as the stations run on their own). No problem: we pulled up, the station \u00e2\u20ac\u0153recognized\u00e2\u20ac\u009d our car, the gate swung open without a word, and we were guided through the process via the stations\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 electronic signage.<\/p>\n

The car was hoisted up as normal, allowing the Better Place robot to slide under the vehicle to remove our battery and insert a new one, a process that takes all of five minutes. And then, a yellow warning sign appeared. It read\u00c2\u00a0takala<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u201c a word that first year\u00c2\u00a0ulpan<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0students quickly learn to dread. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Error.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

We waited a couple of minutes, but the yellow warning remained. So we called Better Place Customer Service.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written\u00c2\u00a0before<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0about Better Place\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attentiveness and professionalism towards its customers and Dor, who picked up the call, was no exception. He calmed us down and tried various fixes on his end. The yellow warning would disappear, the process would resume, but then the\u00c2\u00a0takala<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0alert came back.<\/p>\n

We went through this quite a few times over the course of about half an hour before it was clear that the ever patient Dor had exhausted his ability to remotely fix the issue. Unfortunately, it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just that we couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a new battery. The robot now would not release our car to go find another station (we could have driven back a few kilometers to Nesharim or tried our luck at continuing on to Beit Shemesh or Hemed on the charge that remained).<\/p>\n

Incredibly apologetic, Dor made us an offer we couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t refuse \u00e2\u20ac\u201c especially one at 12:30 AM. He pressed a button on his call center console and the door to the station manager\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office magically opened. There on the desk was a set of keys to an identical Better Place car sitting in the station\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parking lot. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Take the keys,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and drive home with our car. In the morning, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll bring your car directly to you.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Which is what we did. And since Better Place only sells one model of car, our replacement vehicle was identical to our regular one: just as powerful up the hill, same comfort we were used to. We made it home with plenty of juice to spare.<\/p>\n

In the morning, our car was delivered as promised. Alon, the driver, was ecstatic at having the chance to visit Jerusalem. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve only been here once in my life,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and that was to the Old City and the\u00c2\u00a0Kotel<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (the Western Wall). Apparently, Better Place is operating a clandestine employee Birthright program on the side.<\/p>\n

My wife Jody pointed out positively Zen-like that these things can happen in any kind of car. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We could have gotten a flat tire in our old Toyota Corolla,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doubtful we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have had such cheery Customer Service.<\/p>\n

Bottom line: sure, we would have rather stayed at the party and danced for longer than explore the insides of a Better Place swap station. But it gave Better Place a chance to prove again how it has mastered the art of keeping the customer satisfied even under unexpected adverse conditions.<\/p>\n

I filled this glass yesterday on Israelity<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey Better Place electric car aficionados: ever wonder what would happen if you pulled into one of the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fully automated battery swap stations and it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work? Well, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m here to tell the tale. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a classic glass half empty\/half full situation. Half empty: the station broke down and we weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t able to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,24],"tags":[23,105,101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2923"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2923"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2926,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2923\/revisions\/2926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisnormallife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}