In order to run a successful business you need to learn that the small things make a big difference to customers but generally cost you very little. Many companies spend too much of their time ignoring or actively preventing the customer from gaining any small side benefit. Instead the focus on big things that they are under some impression I want.
My best made Wade learnt this lesson very quickly when took of the mobile phone shop we used to work in. He charges customers batteries for free. He sends customers to competitors if he doesn't have stock. He accepts returns when something goes wrong and fights with the supplier not the customer. His shop is orders of magnitude more successful than before he ran it.
The local Italian Deli where I get my morning coffee and lunch illustrated getting this right superbly. They have a loyalty thing in the form of a bit of card that gets stamped and when you hit 8 stamps you get a free coffee. Nothing new, nothing special. lots of companies do this.
The difference is when I got my free coffee this morning, I was asked if I wanted a large one. I get a regular every morning not a large. They know this as they see me every morning and now just ask if I wan't my regular (I love that). A large is about 50p more. It probably costs them about 5p more. But there where no rules, no small print of the "free drink is of regular size only" rubbish. No, for virtually no cost to them they got me as a customer for as long as I work in the area. Which could be up to another year. That's a lot of coffees.
It's easy to have happy customers. Which is why it never ceases to amaze me how much effort companies expend in trying to keep their customers unhappy.
1. Chris
This is one of the reasons I love small, owner-run local shops so much. There’s a fantastic shop in Chorlton called the Belgian Belly. Now, I’m reasonably sure I’d be a regular customer there anyway, because of the huge range of wonderful Belgian beer they stock. But what seals the whole deal for me is that Jason, the guy who runs the place, will recommend new beers for me to try, remember what I’ve bought, ask me how I liked them, and on the basis of my response, recommend others. It’s like the Amazon recommendations thing, only it actually works. It also ensures I’m in there, every Saturday, buying a lot of very nice beer indeed.
2. Gledster2000
You are so right! The companies who I return to are the ones who have given me good service and I have pleasent memories of. It isn’t hard - a smile, a polite word, a prompt reply to queries, really not hard.
I also agree with your annoyance towards small print attached to special offers such as “cheapest item free” (roughly translated as “we don’t want it to cost us TOO much”).
3. Destructor
I’d love to be able to chip in with my story of a company or shop in Britain that went the extra mile.
I really would love to be able to do that.
d
4. matthew
Same thing happens in the coffee shop near me, only better! I get a free coffee about half the time I go there! And a large one too. Which is nice. I have a loyalty card too, but I save that for ‘emergencies’.
5. Jose
When I got back from Prague recently, I got a letter from the hotel we stayed in thanking me for choosing them, and hoping that I had an enjoyable stay, and yesterday they sent me a birthday card! (Its not my birthday, but thats not the point, I thought it was sweet)
6. matthew
my Dad used to tour with bands and once inquired into hiring equipment from a certain company in the states, only inquired mind, he didn’t actually hire anything. For the next seven years, he recieved a large box of ‘Wilburs’ chocolates from America every christmas from said company he never actually got anything from. Now THAT’S costomer service. For people who aren’t even customers.
7. Hilary
Wade always gives excellent service. I will always go out of my way to buy from his shop. AND I always tell people to go there.
8. Francesca
Good customer service is so rare in the UK that it is worth its weight in gold.