May 29th, 2005

Hello!

Superb customer service is key to make loyal advocates out of your customers.

In this issue:

1. The Cost of One Dime
2. Three more articles
3. CustomerServicePoint.com Info

The Cost of One Dime

This time I went to buy a bread and didn't have enough money on me to pay for it. In fact, I was just a dime short. After searching my pockets to find a dime without success, I asked the man behind the counter what to do.

His answer astounded me.

As a loyal customer, buying a lot of bread in the last couple of years (the expensive, healthy stuff remember?) he actually told me to give back the bread in my hand, since I didn't have the money to pay for it. I could buy a cheaper loaf if I liked. I think my mouth fell open, but I'm not sure. I didn't want a cheaper bread, I wanted this one! But if I wanted THIS bread, I had to go home and fetch another dime. Yes, a DIME!

I felt betrayed. I couldn't believe that this man would put me through all this hassle for a lousy dime. And it wasn't that this man had no authority to let me go with this loaf of bread and one dime short, this guy was the manager!

I guess he couldn't miss that dime.

But apparently he could miss a customer.

Because at that point I decided for myself that I wouldn't buy a loaf of bread, a cake, a pie, whatever, from this guy again. So in the end, the cost of this one dime, was all the future profits he would have earned by keeping me a happy customer. And he would have converted me in a loyal customer, just by sparing me the hassle...

Take it from me: if you're ever in a situation like this, where you can help a customer at your own expense, please consider the future income that customer may bring to your company. It's just good business.

Three more articles in the Vault

I know I promised you 3 articles last week, but my laptop had a severe breakdown... anyway, here's the 3rd batch of the promised articles...

8 Critical Steps to Establish a Customer Service Culture by Anthony Mullins

Most all of my interactions with displeased customers were not the result of a poor product, but rather a disappointing customer experience. Why is that?

Loyalty Programs May Keep Customers Coming Back – But First You’ve Got to Earn their Trust by Julia Hyde
Trading stamps are a thing of the past, a wide range of industries still use loyalty programs to establish long-term relationships with their customers. By far the most successful and well known is the frequent flyer program.

Dealing with People - Words to Avoid by Alan Fairweather
There are certain "trigger" words that cause people to become more difficult especially in emotionally charged situations and they should be avoided.

All can be found in the Article Vault.

Have a good read!

CustomerServicePoint.com Info

Customerservicepoint Weblog
Keep track of the weblog at http://customerservicepoint.blogspot.com and you are informed of changes to the site as soon as they are made.

See you next week!

At your service,

Marjan Steneker.

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Customer Servings is the e-zine for www.customerservicepoint.com, your resource on improving customer service. The newsletter is sent at irregular intervals.

Customer Servings is for you!

If you have any suggestions for subjects you would like to see in future issues, or have comments in general on Customer Servings or Customer Service Point, please e-mail me at customer_servings@customerservicepoint.com.

I welcome your remarks!

(C) 2005, Marjan Steneker