Main Idea
Do you like to go to businesses where everyone just does their job? Everyone has been in places where the employees are competent and the service is okay. How do you feel when everything was satisfactory?
Expansion of Idea
Satisfactory is definitely better than unsatisfactory. But if we want to grow our businesses, satisfactory should truly be viewed as an enemy. We need to take the extra step in serving our customers.
This past week, I was helping my son, Mark, with a condo that he is remodeling. I went to Lowe’s for him and purchased a refrigerator on Monday. They were able to look up his account because he had purchased a couple of other appliances there. The Lowe’s employee remembered Mark’s situation because Mark was under a very tight timeline to get this condo fixed up. I asked if they could deliver it on Tuesday morning because we had a plumber coming in the afternoon. The guy said unfortunately they could not deliver it until the afternoon. The next morning, I showed up at Mark’s condo at 7:30 am and there was the Lowe’s delivery guy knocking on the door. I told him I thought he was coming in the afternoon. He said that the sales guy had asked if they could get this delivered first thing to help Mark out to make the whole project go smoother. This blew me away. I tried to give the Lowe’s delivery guy a tip for going out of his way and he told me that they were not allowed to accept tips. I had quite the opposite experience with Home Depot when we were finishing our basement. (That is a story for another week.) The employees at Lowe’s took an extra step which makes a huge difference in customer loyalty. I would much rather shop at Lowe’s than Home Depot. And the only difference is a couple of extra steps that two employees took that has no impact on their pay but has a huge impact on customer perception of value.
Areas to Start:
Look at your customer service. Identify one thing that could be added that might add value.
Focus on listening to the customers.
Celebrate the employees that have taken the extra step. New business is not far behind.