Author: JoAnna Brandi

This first tip of the new year is a reminder about delivering WHOLE experiences. Today's customer, who has dozens of places she can spend her hundreds or thousands of dollars wants the whole of the experience to be good, if not great. And if you want that customer to return to your place of business bringing money and friends, you'd better be looking at all that it takes, every step of the way to make sure the customer is always saying "Yes" about that experience.

 

Twas the day before Christmas and the boys were watching football when Mom pulled out her new camera in preparation for the festivities that eve. Since she'd never taken it out of the box, we wanted to make sure it worked. My sister in law and I went through the instructions and took a few shots only to find out that it needed a memory card. Without delay the three of us scooted out the door to Staples.

 

We found Anthony in the photo department, he was busy and politely asked us to wait a few moments. My sister in law uses her digital camera often and was advising us on some of the choices when Anthony came over and explained in detail what we needed. The one gig card was expensive but it surely would meet all of my Mom's needs for a long time.

As we were walking out of the department, Mom spotted the photo printers and decided that she wanted to buy herself one for Christmas. "Go for it Mom," we said and once again sought out Anthony's help.

He was knowledgeable, polite and friendly (not once did he call us ladies "you guys.") We quickly found a printer that would fit the bill and off he went to get it. Moments later he returned to tell us the box was damaged, but he was sure the printer inside was okay.

We asked him to open the box and check it out, since we wanted to use it immediately. Without a whimper Anthony got to work and found that indeed there was some damage to the back panel of the printer.

We asked if, perhaps, he might remove the back panel from one of the display machines and make a swap and wonder of wonders, he knew of a display unit that was not functioning and got permission to take that panel and swap it out. Being of the mind to ask for what I want, I sweetly asked Anthony if he would make SURE the printer actually worked. That meant he had to set up the whole machine.

Again, Anthony rose to the challenge and in the time it took us to learn about and stock up on photo paper he had a test page printed and we were ready to check out, go home and start taking and developing pictures.

WOW! Talk about good customer care! What a wonderful gift for this Customer Care Lady to be able to experience the caring, the kindness, the attention I can't seem to find in many places. I was basking in the glow of the experience! Anthony did a great job and we told him so.

All aglow I followed my Mom to the checkout counter where a minor fracas was ensuing. It seems that there was a coupon on the counter for a 15% discount for any purchase over $75. Mom picked it up, and then put it down as she reached in her bag for her credit card and the woman who was in front of her on line (and checking out with less than the required number of dollars) picked it up and walked away with it. The checkout clerk witnessed and verified the incident. Uh-oh, that's when it started.

We asked the checkout clerk for the discount and she said she couldn't do it without the coupon. "But," Mom said, "I had the coupon in my hand - you saw what happened, we're spending over $200 here and I think I should get the discount."

"Doesn't matter," she said, "I need a coupon."

Now - and you've got to imagine this - you've three women on a mission to find another coupon. Being the inclusive type myself, I've now got the front door greeter and Anthony involved in scouring the place for a flyer with a coupon. Eureka! We found one at another counter and started the process all over again. The check out person quickly informed us that she can't use the coupon because "it's already been used."

Okay that's enough, "Please call the manager," we finally asked, this is getting ridiculous. The manager corroborated the idiocy, the coupon was "used." As the line backed up behind us we argued (yes WE) that we were entitled to the discount, we were spending a LOT of money. Finally Tony, the assistant manager agreed to give us our 15% discount. That came after quite a bit of frustration, aggravation and bad feelings. (Especially when the lady who took our coupon promptly returned all the items she had just purchased, added another to the mix to get her purchases over the minimum and easily used the "stolen" coupon.

I did a bad thing. My communication was clumsy, not positive in delivery and not well accepted. I was a bit, uh, frustrated, having spent another 15 minutes in the store (remember I thought it was just on a quick trip to buy a memory card.)

Without first telling the assistant manager that we really appreciated the fine care Anthony delivered, as I said, "You know you could avoid this kind of situation if you taught your frontline people to make their own decisions based on the situation they are presented with. You know all you "big boxes" talk this great story of customer service but you don't do things you really need to do like letting people make the right decisions and not having inflexible rules. Oooh.

"How can you talk about getting bad customer service - look at what Anthony just did for you. Isn't that good customer service?"

"Yes," I replied, realizing in a flash that I had not been at all graceful in delivering my comments. "Anthony is wonderful, and I would guess that Anthony would deliver the same kind of care wherever he worked, he's a very caring individual, and you're right his service was terrific. This is a whole experience though, and the way we are being treated now, this nonsense about coupons not working, is impacting my feelings about that experience, and yes, ANTHONY did a great job."

So today's tip - the first of this new year 2006 - is a reminder about delivering WHOLE experiences. Today's customer, who has dozens of places she can spend her hundreds of dollars wants the whole of the experience to be good, if not great. And if you want that customer to return to your place of business bringing money and friends you'd better be looking at all that it takes, every step of the way to make sure the customer is always saying "Yes" about that experience.

So Tony - and every other person who is responsible for delivering value to the customer - this one's for you.

Here's my definition for the **Customer Experience - it's the sum total of the FEELINGS evoked as a result of ANY interaction that takes place at ANY touch point in the organization. It's based on the PERCEPTION of the value delivered, both tangible and intangible.**

As my friend Jim Blasingame* would say, "Write this on a ROCK."

PS - We get out to the car and my sister in law says, "Check the bag - those memory cards are very small, I want to make sure it's in there I don't want to come back here." But back we went because guess what got left out of the bag - you guessed it, the card.

Happy New Year - let's find NEW and fabulous ways to make our customers and our employees happy!

 

Copyright 2006 by JoAnna Brandi. Used with permission.