If you're a sales professional, here's a good lesson in how far a little extra consideration will take you when it comes to making a big impact with your customer.
I had some documents printed and bound at Office Depot yesterday. The problem was, the finished job had a few errors. Cecilia, the college student who was manning the counter, was apologetic. She knew she made a few mistakes with the order, and told me that it would be ready tomorrow.
My expectation today when I went back to pick up the order: A correct order, hopefully.
It was correct. Cecilia handed me the order, and apologized again for the mistake. Then she did something that surprised me. As I was about to pay, she said, "I'm taking an extra $10 off the order since you had to come back in today."
Sixteen words. That was it.
But, here's what it did:
- Showed that she had the power to make good on an error.
- Backed up her words with a little cash, representing about 15% of the cost of the order.
- Saved a customer, and his future business.
Here's the sales lesson for you, courtesy of a 20-something year old college girl: Little tokens that say you're sorry when something goes wrong with a business deal (big or small) matter to your customer. It's easy to save a customer, but you need to demonstrate that you really are sorry, and then compensate your customer for their inconvenience. it's important to them.
Dan unfortunately in today’s world this type of true customer service seems to be few and far between, but the good news is I feel that it is changing. I work in the gift industry running a gift basket company where you can say our sole purpose is making people happy. Appreciation goes along way in maintaining customers, clients and employees. As we all know the cost to train new employees or bring in new customers and clients is far greater than to maintain the ones you already have. One of my clients is a large hospital in Florida and they have started a service recovery program. What this entails is simple, they ask me to create small gift basket for the patient or family member if the hospital has inconvenienced them in any way or as a thank you for something they have done. Along with this gift the person in charge speaks with the individual in person to thank them personally or to help resolve an issue. This has done a great job in improving their patient satisfaction scores as well as making them the hospital of choice for their patients. Lets face it if your if you have to be the hospital wouldn’t you rather go to one with excellent customer service. Showing that you truly care about your clients and employees will help to maintain the ones you have as well as bringing in new ones. Everyone wants to be where they are appreciated.
Posted by: Ric Inglett | May 7, 2006 8:36 AM | Permalink to Comment