The cost of loyalty? €1
Welcome to the twenty-forth edition of “In Touch.” As always, I would love to continue the conversation so please hit “reply” and let me know what you think.
Story of the Week: The cost of loyalty? €1
When my 8-year-old son requested a Playstation 5 console from Father Christmas, I went about making the necessary arrangements to have one waiting for him under the tree on December 25.
When I asked around, I realised that it was not as easy as usual to find certain products this year, with global shortages reported. The Playstation 5 was in that harder-to-find category, so I was more than happy to locate a store that had one in stock. When I arrived there, the owner warmly encouraged me to buy some costly accessories to go with the console and I decided to take his advice (it’s Christmas, after all!). By the time I reached the checkout, it was obvious that this particular present was turning out to be rather more expensive than I had anticipated. As I prepared to pay, I helped myself to a pack of Halls throat sweets (I love Halls). When I checked the bill to see just how many hundreds of euros I had spent, I was surprised to see that I had also been charged €1 for the sweets. I said nothing about this and, thanking the owner for his service, left the store.
As I was walking to my car, the man followed me outside. “Google reviews work miracles,” he told me, “so it would be great if you could go on it and give me a 5-star review.”
I was shocked! And so was he when I said to him, “Perhaps I could do that but it wouldn’t be a five-star review.”
He obviously didn’t understand what I was talking about and he asked me to explain. “My friend,” I said to him “if you want a 5-star review then you need to offer your customers more than what is written on your product labels. If I was going to write any kind of positive review, I would need to have seen a genuine effort on your part to offer me more than anywhere else.”
He realised his ‘mistake’ but it was too late. I know that a mere one euro would not break my bank account nor make a great deal change to his but what I saw that day was a lack of generosity. I had not asked for a discount; indeed, I felt that I had been doing him something of a favour by buying more things than I originally intended to. Strange as it may seem, a free pack of sweets would have created a totally different feeling towards him and his business.
Words of Wisdom
A ‘wow’ response from our previous newsletter:
“Alone doesn’t always mean lonely and together doesn’t always mean happy.”
Soff Williams
On perspective:
“Customer satisfaction is worthless. Customer loyalty is priceless.”
Jeffrey Gitomer, Sales Author
A Question to Ponder, dear friend.
“What is minor to you and major to your customer?”
Hit reply and let me know.
Announcements
- We still have a few spots left for our “Future Leaders Mastermind” that starts in January 2022 and is aimed at helping high-potential individuals up-level their career and bring change in their organisation. Inbox me and I will be more than happy to send you more information.
- In this week’s “Jump-Start Monday” we looked at how you can build relationships by increasing the trust and decreasing the tension. Join us every Monday at 10:25am EEST, on LinkedIn, Facebook and/or YouTube.
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Best Regards,
Michael R. Virardi
