Caffeine & Customer Service
How do you make it up to your customers when making a boo-boo?
Yesterday morning at Caribou Coffee, the happy, highly-caffeinated employees gave my drink to the wrong person. Ultimately, I ended up waiting for 10-plus minutes (in a quite empty coffee house) and was late for work.
"We're so sorry," one of the employees said. "Please come in tomorrow and drink coffee on us."
Sure, I thought as I walked out. They're not even going to remember who I am if I come in tomorrow.
But then I realized this could be good fodder for a blog post, so I went back in this morning. To say they remembered me was an understatement.
"We were just talking about you!" exclaimed one of the employees. "We're so glad you came back. We were such idiots yesterday. Your coffee is totally on us."
Long after they'd handed me my hot and tasty beverage, I was still standing there talking to all four of the employees. They now know my name, what I do for a living, and have properly identified which car is mine for future drive-through purposes.
As I was leaving, I thanked one of the employees again and told her I was impressed with how they handled the situation.
"It's really no problem," she said. "I mean, how often is it that you have a good customer service experience? It seems like that doesn't even exist anymore."
Amen, sister.
Stories of bad customer service spread like wildfire. That's because in this day and age, we just can't grasp the amount of social and moral indecency flying around. But I'm here to tell you that a good customer experience can be just as viral. I shared my experience with a handful of co-workers this morning who were also impressed with Caribou's stellar customer service.
As the four Caribou employees wished me a good day at work, I heard one say, "We really hope to see you soon, Megan."
Indeed. Not only do they have a loyal customer on their hands—they've got one heck of a product evangelist.
Comments
I think the key question I have for you.. What non-verbal or verbal expectation did you leave the store with?
Think about the times when any issue arose. Every business has a 50/50 chance to save or lose a customer.
How you left, The expression on your face, the looking at the clock before you walked out the door. DId they understand your buying style?
Teaching your staff to recognize your customers buying styles and the non-verbal cues can lead to a customer forever or customer whose found their service somewhere else..
Of course it could be the $1,000's of dollars you spend yearly at that one store... NEver forget the $..
Peace
Posted by: Sam Engardio | March 2, 2007 12:12 PM
I'm so glad you posted your negative-turned-positive experience! I work at a store myself and know all too well how those mix-ups can happen, even when the store's not busy. When those mistakes happen, we try to do just what those in your local store did. It's this and the generally welcoming atmosphere I witnessed for almost three years that made me want to work for the chain. It makes me so happy to read about these folks turning the situation around for you!
Posted by: gw | March 18, 2007 09:10 AM
Thanks so much for your comments, guys!
Sam—I think my buying style is pretty different when I'm buying a tangible thing like a coffee as opposed to buying something intangible like insurance or a cell phone plan. When it comes to the latter, I agree with you: the salesperson has a 50/50 chance of making it or breaking it.
I agree with you on the importance of nonverbal cues. We've got an article in our Agent Resource Center about using body language and nonverbal cues to your advantage (which you can read here).
GW—I agree that the experience was a refreshing one. I think a lot of people abstain from chains because they don't feel they get the same warm and fuzzy treatment as the local mom-and-pop stores. If local chains can capture that feeling in their customer service, I think they'll go a long way.
Posted by: Megan Mahan | March 19, 2007 09:56 AM
I also agree with Sam. Non-verbal cues are importance when it comes to insurance industry. I believe insurance industry is service industry and in service industry one must consider verbal as well as non-verbal cues. I am reviewing different software for insurance industry. I find http://www.leadorganizer.net as very good features for customer relation management.
Posted by: Ripal S | October 15, 2007 02:36 AM