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Casual Articles - How To Lose a Customer for Life
This is the second article of a three-part series. I'm illustrating the marketing challenges of a small business, PrescottWeddings.com.Our goal was to both build the PWC brand and drive traffic to the Web site. Advertising regularly was essential. Yet it was also essential to keep our costs down. So we leve
Key Learning Point
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Occasionally things do go sour. When it happens to you, fix the problem fast. Make it your speed, generosity and concern that gets remembered. Not the trouble, or the tofu.
Action Steps
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Develop a service recovery policy
Ever had one of those conversations where you wondered what the topic was and the only word you could identify was “I”?As a marketer, I often recommend marketing yourself. However, there comes a point, rather quickly in any conversation when the other person tires of hearing “I”. So, the problem is…How’s t
Most of the food was delicious, but one tofu dish did not measure up. All six diners popped the tofu into their mouths. Then all six turned up their noses at the taste. The tofu had gone rancid.
Tofu disintegrates pretty quickly in the mouth, so everyone swallowed hard and reached quickly for their drinks to wash away the taste. The waitress apologized right away and promised to tell the owner. Better-tasting dishes soon followed.
But when the bill was presented at the end of the meal, the tofu dish was still included! The waitress apologized again and referred to the restaurant owner. The owner appeared and defended the bill. ‘But you ate the tofu,’ he said, ‘so we still have to charge you. If the tofu was no good, why did you eat all six pieces?’ Despite their protests, the tofu remained on the bill.
And that was the last bill ever paid at that restaurant by any of the six lunchtime diners…or their families…or their friends…or their business associates.
Now, what should the owner have done? Provide free desserts or a round of free drinks for everyone at the table? Immediately remove the tofu from the bill? Apologize personally and thank the group for their valuable feedback? Promise to alert the chef immediately, and do so? Upon departure, give each of the six diners a business card from the restaurant with a hand-signed promise from the owner for ‘Six delicious and fresh tofu dim sum…free anytime within the next two months’? All of the above?
This approach would help ensure that each diner returned in the near future, giving the restaurant – and the tofu – another chance. But no one eats just tofu. So there would be another round of lunchtime bills to pay by each diner…and their families…and their friends…and their business associates.
Key Learning Point
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Occasionally things do go sour. When it happens to you, fix the problem fast. Make it your speed, generosity and concern that gets remembered. Not the trouble, or the tofu.
Action Steps
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Develop a service recovery policy a
Any job seeker looking for sample resumes usually doesn’t have to look very far.A multitude of sites today are offering free sample resumes on the internet in addition to the avalanche of books that are released each year touting resume examples. With this kind of information overload it can be quite easy for the u
But when the bill was presented at the end of the meal, the tofu dish was still included! The waitress apologized again and referred to the restaurant owner. The owner appeared and defended the bill. ‘But you ate the tofu,’ he said, ‘so we still have to charge you. If the tofu was no good, why did you eat all six pieces?’ Despite their protests, the tofu remained on the bill.
And that was the last bill ever paid at that restaurant by any of the six lunchtime diners…or their families…or their friends…or their business associates.
Now, what should the owner have done? Provide free desserts or a round of free drinks for everyone at the table? Immediately remove the tofu from the bill? Apologize personally and thank the group for their valuable feedback? Promise to alert the chef immediately, and do so? Upon departure, give each of the six diners a business card from the restaurant with a hand-signed promise from the owner for ‘Six delicious and fresh tofu dim sum…free anytime within the next two months’? All of the above?
This approach would help ensure that each diner returned in the near future, giving the restaurant – and the tofu – another chance. But no one eats just tofu. So there would be another round of lunchtime bills to pay by each diner…and their families…and their friends…and their business associates.
Key Learning Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Occasionally things do go sour. When it happens to you, fix the problem fast. Make it your speed, generosity and concern that gets remembered. Not the trouble, or the tofu.
Action Steps
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Develop a service recovery policy
What to do if. . . You Find Money: If it's a few cents, put it on the nearest desk or table. If it's $5, $10 or more, put it in an envelope (if possible) with a note as to where it was found and leave it on the Receptionist desk. You Break Something: First clean it up, and then
And that was the last bill ever paid at that restaurant by any of the six lunchtime diners…or their families…or their friends…or their business associates.
Now, what should the owner have done? Provide free desserts or a round of free drinks for everyone at the table? Immediately remove the tofu from the bill? Apologize personally and thank the group for their valuable feedback? Promise to alert the chef immediately, and do so? Upon departure, give each of the six diners a business card from the restaurant with a hand-signed promise from the owner for ‘Six delicious and fresh tofu dim sum…free anytime within the next two months’? All of the above?
This approach would help ensure that each diner returned in the near future, giving the restaurant – and the tofu – another chance. But no one eats just tofu. So there would be another round of lunchtime bills to pay by each diner…and their families…and their friends…and their business associates.
Key Learning Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Occasionally things do go sour. When it happens to you, fix the problem fast. Make it your speed, generosity and concern that gets remembered. Not the trouble, or the tofu.
Action Steps
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Develop a service recovery policy
In the mid-Fifteenth Century, when Johann Guttenburg brought moveable type printing to the western world I doubt he envisioned the industry he would create. Today, printing is a significant line item on every business budget. Invoices, contracts, business cards, letterhead, and brochures are all part of the day-to-day ope
This approach would help ensure that each diner returned in the near future, giving the restaurant – and the tofu – another chance. But no one eats just tofu. So there would be another round of lunchtime bills to pay by each diner…and their families…and their friends…and their business associates.
Key Learning Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Occasionally things do go sour. When it happens to you, fix the problem fast. Make it your speed, generosity and concern that gets remembered. Not the trouble, or the tofu.
Action Steps
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Develop a service recovery policy
If you are smart, you will form a business entity for your business start up. The question, however, is how do you find investors and what do you sell them in exchange for critically needed money.For the purposes of this article, let’s assume you formed a corporation to start your business. Let’s also assume you ha
Key Learning Point
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Occasionally things do go sour. When it happens to you, fix the problem fast. Make it your speed, generosity and concern that gets remembered. Not the trouble, or the tofu.
Action Steps
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Develop a service recovery policy and display it with pride. Let your customers know: if something goes wrong, you will make it right.
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