Great Service vs. Memorable Experience
Anyone who knows me, knows I am a huge fan of great customer service. That’s probably not really saying much because I don’t know anyone out there who really enjoys crappy customer service, even though if there was someone who did, it wouldn’t be hard for them to get their daily fill of it.
I have said many times that great customer service shouldn’t be anyone’s ultimate goal because let’s admit it; great service is expected these days. If we don’t get what we are expecting, we go somewhere else. We choose a competitor, we do another search online, we change the channel on the radio or TV or we simply learn how to do it ourselves by watching a YouTube video.
What people are really looking for is a “memorable experience.” A memorable experience has lots of moments of great service built in. It’s all about everyone doing their job in the best way possible. In a large company, its when marketing, sales, manufacturing, service and all the other departments up and down the company “org chart” all work in conjunction. In small companies, it’s when people can trust the person they are dealing with to deliver the product, service or experience that was requested, ordered or paid for. The experience starts and ends as expected…or ideally better than expected. In between the start and end, the service provided and eventual story created is one worth telling others about.
Returns and Purchases
In retail environments, making a return of a product or purchase isn’t always easy. You need to have your receipt, you might need to explain your reasoning for the return and it’s not always certain that you’re going to leave satisfied with the response you receive.
On the other hand, when you purchase a product or service, usually you’re happy and satisfied with the experience, at least initially, because you were compelled to make a decision to move forward. You selected the item, product, service or person to help satisfy a need that you had at the moment.
The former can sometimes be challenging, frustrating or just make you feel uncomfortable. For example, the other day my mom refused to allow me to ask the local barista to remake her drink that she didn’t think tasted right. I told her they would be happy to remake the drink for her so she would be satisfied but she didn’t want to sound like she was complaining and she also didn’t want the barista to have to go through the trouble of doing the extra work.
A Man and His Mower
I’ve written about it here before but I really love to mow my lawn. It’s one of my favorite parts of being a homeowner, and for that reason, I need to be totally comfortable with the mower I use. I purchased a new lawn mower at Lowe’s last month and from the first time using it, I just didn’t feel comfortable with it. The assembly parts didn’t fit as expected for a product of that price point, the grip was uncomfortable and the handling of the mower just wasn’t as smooth as I wanted.
Power equipment like mowers have a 30-day return policy from Lowe’s so I gave the mower a chance and tried to fall in love with it. Over the next several weeks, I used it to cut my grass. Maybe I was secretly hoping I would really start to like the results it delivered or maybe I just didn’t want to go through the hassle of returning it. Time was running out on my 30 days and I was not enamored with the machine and more than before so I made the decision to pack it back up in the box it came it, gather all the accessories, manuals, and receipts and head back to Lowe’s.
As I approached the Customer Service desk, I was ready to plead my case why I was returning this mower. I would tell them all the things I said above in a polite, professional manner but I was not going to apologize for not liking their product.
“I can help who’s next,” said Zina from behind the counter with a smile on her face.
Less than 5 minutes later, I walked out of Lowe’s with a full credit and a smile on my face. Zina was pleasant, professional and never questioned my reasons for the return. The process was painless and exactly how I was hoping it would be. It really made me appreciate how Zina (and Lowe’s) simply did what was needed to make sure this was a pleasant, memorable experience.
As I left Lowe’s and headed down the road to Home Depot to find my next, best mower, I was hoping for a similar experience. Sure enough, after a few minutes of reviewing the different features and benefits of several lawn mowers on the shelves, the orange-aproned young man working that day helped me load my new mower on a cart and had me on my way. John at the customer service counter helped me with enthusiasm and even told me I would be saving $50 for opening up an in-store line of credit (which I was going to do anyway) because they were running a special promotion.
Let’s review that “experience.” I found what I was looking for, an employee was available to answer some quick questions and helped me get the product off the shelf, a second employee with a great attitude of service helped me and even gave me more than I was expecting and even helped me load my mower into my car. Yeah, that’s pretty good, huh?
As someone who focuses on great customer service and memorable experiences all the time, it’s neat to see people like Zina at Lowe’s and John at Home Depot deliver both. One was in a situation where the company was losing business and the other was when the company was gaining business. The thing to realize is because of how both of these employees handled the opportunity, both of them will be maintaining, and most likely, gaining even more business. The service was great but the experiences of both situations were memorable. Zina and John were, as I love to say, #Blogworthy.
What are you doing to provide memorable experiences for your customers and clients whether they are coming or going? The start of a relationship is just as important as the end of a relationship and certainly, all the points in between are important too. How are you making sure that your service, product, company or brand is exceeding expectations and being worth talking about?
Having a customer or client return a product is one thing…but having a customer or client return for more over and over again is something even better.
Photo Credit: Harry Alverson via Flickr