Surprising Your Customers with Kindness

Don't you love it when you're surprised by something that makes you smile? Most of us do.

As a business, you have lots of opportunities to make your customers happy. Perhaps even surprise them with something they didn't expect. But, do you do it?

Case in point, Send Rover Over Pet Salon in Eugene, Oregon. My friend Kristen Dunder posted this photo to her Facebook page right before Christmas with the following status update:

This is the Christmas card we received from Send Rover Over, Bella's groomers. I love the personal touch...they must have taken the photo when I brought her in last month!

So, here's Kristen taking in her dog for a grooming and completely unaware that the folks at Send Rover Over are secretly taking Bella's photo for a special Christmas card. First off, kudos to SRO for even sending their clients a holiday card. But, to make it so personal as to put a photo of the client's dog on the front of the card? Now, that's the kind of thoughtful gesture that, I'm sure, makes clients want to come back again and again. I know I'd go to Send Rover Over if I lived in Eugene.

If there something your business can do to surprise and delight your customers? Make them feel special? Put a smile of their faces? Think about it. Now do it. 

How Radio Shack earned my business

The web may be changing the way we shop, but there's nothing like a good, old-fashioned, face-to-face encounter when it comes to excellent customer service. Face it, sometimes we actually need a real, live person to hold something, look at it, and test it. No matter how good a company's online customer service is or how skilled their phone reps are, sometimes you need that tangible experience. 

My mom is technologically challenged. If it glows, beeps, or was produced after in 1985, she can't operate it. So, when her smartphone wouldn't charge, I had to step in to handle the problem.

After I got the phone from her, I happened to be driving past a Best Buy. Not knowing if the issue was with the phone or the charger, I stepped in to see if someone there could detect the glitch. After standing in a long line in the mobile phone department, I finally saw a clerk and was able ask if the line was just for activations or if they could help me with a problem. He promptly answered, "No, we just activate phones. You'll have to call Virgin Mobile directly." Oh goody.

Upon driving home, I happened to remember that there was a Radio Shack nearby. I pulled right up front and walked into the tiny store. Two clerks were there and I told one of them, Mike, the problem. He took a new charger out of the packaging and plugged one end into the phone and the other into an outlet. Voila! That pretty, little, charging battery icon showed up and I was good to go.

At that point, I didn't care how much the charger was. I didn't care if I could get it cheaper online. I just wanted to reward Mike with my business. He made the effort to troubleshoot the problem and, because of that, I could return a working phone to my mom. Isn't that what customer service should be?

Although Radio Shack is a big company, the size of its stores still give it that small town, Main Street feel. And, I certainly got Main Street service--something that Best Buy clearly wasn't interested in providing. Because of Mike, I'll be returning to that Radio Shack for all my future needs. No doubt about it.

Have you had a customer service experience at a chain store that made you feel like you were shopping at a Mom and Pop shop?  Do experiences like this make you more devoted to a particular store or brand?  Or am I old school by wanting to have a real, live person fix my problem for me?

Give 'em what they want

As a business owner, entrepreneur, consultant, or employee, we all have our own agendas. Sometimes we set those priorities ourselves and, other times, they come from above. But, they're always there. We need to move that inventory, push this service, promote that product, and get people to do what we want them to. But, what ever happened to listening to what our customers and clients actually want?

On Mother's Day, I wanted to take my mom to a fancy brunch and then out for a spa day. Sounds delightful, right? A swanky day for the two of us. How could she not be thrilled? When I presented her with my plans for the day, her response was less than enthusiastic. Her counter proposal? Come over with a pizza and then have me assemble this big audio cabinet that's been sitting in her den in a box for the last two years. Of course, since it was Mother's Day, I obliged.

Four hours and nearly 200 parts later, I had my mom's cabinet assembled. Was it how I anticipated spending Mother's Day? No. Was it what my mother really, really wanted? Yes. Within two minutes of me finishing the project, she had a big smile on her face as she scampered about the house grabbing things to put in her new cabinet.

On Mother's Day, my mom was my customer. She wanted; I listened. And, she was happy. So, why don't more of us listen when it comes to our businesses?

Sure, we all have a bottom line to meet and some things we enjoy more than others. But, if we're not in business to make our customers happy, it's all a waste of time.

Look at your business closely. And, most importantly, put on your listening ears. What are people telling you? What would make their lives easier, happier, and more fulfilling? They're showing you what they want each and every day with the actions they take, or don't take. Listen to them. And, then be a hero and give 'em what they want.

Ignoring loyal fans: A social media how-NOT-to

I love it when companies use social media to see what people are saying about their brand. I love it even more when they acknowledge those folks. What I don't love as a consumer is feeling ignored. Enter Sharpie.

The famous marker company, Sharpie, recently offered a perk through Klout. They gave so-called "Sharpie influencers" a bunch of free stuff to do all kinds of artsy things. I love crafts and was bummed I didn't get the perk; so I sent a tweet (I'm a smart aleck, what can I say):

Sukhraj Beasla responded to my tweet and said she was disappointed, too. We started kidding back and forth about how much we loved Sharpies and wanted Sharpie to love us, too. Soon after, Lindsay Fultz said she was laughing at our funny tweets and joined in. Hugh McBride was next. He changed his avatar to a pack of Sharpies and started sharing great photos of things created with Sharpies! Then, Shana Ray joined and tweeted a photo of her Sharpie table.

We started using the hashtag #sharpiechat on some of the tweets, and even more folks started tweeting about Sharpie. People shared how they used Sharpie and what they liked about the product. Sheetal Makhan from South Africa asked what Sharpies were and of course I told her about all the permanent marker goodness. What had started off as a joke had turned into a full-fledged chat on how great Sharpie products were!

For nearly two hours that night, we traded tweets, shared Sharpie art, revised song lyrics to include Sharpie, and kidded about who loved Sharpies the most. It was terribly fun and at it's peak, #sharpiechat had more than 20 participants. Twenty-plus people sharing their love of the product and giving Sharpie's twitter account lots of love. When I went to bed, I thought, "I bet the Sharpie folks will get a kick out of seeing all those tweets in the morning. And how much will they love that we started the first ever #sharpiechat!".

Well, imagine my surprise when the next day came and Sharpie said nothing. Nada. Zilch. I even looked at the Sharpie Twitter page to see if they had respond to anyone from the previous night. Negative. Sharpie hadn't even followed me back (nor have they in the subsequent two weeks)! Granted, I didn't host #sharpiechat for any self-serving purpose, but not to even get one tweet from Sharpie? I thought that bit the big one. (For the record, not everyone put "@sharpie" in their tweets, however there were enough who did that Sharpie undoubtedly saw the surge of mentions and could have tracked the #sharpiechat hashtag.)

So, here's the free advice for the day. If your customers say how great you are, thank them! Respond, engage, do something! The last thing you should be doing is ignoring them. And, since Sharpie didn't see fit to acknowledge anyone who participated in #sharpiechat, I'd like to do that now--because that's how social media works.

Thank you to the following individuals:

@zaneology

@sheetalZA

@collier1960

@aspiejourno

@ribeezie

@lilyshumleun

@kendralante

@brandiandres

@socalscouse

@smartycassie

@bentnwasted

@jenboydsd

@kimpagegluckie

@jeanalawrence

@biggreenpen

@josefrivera

@marylouricci

@marianneworley

@sharayray

And special thanks to: 

@lindsayfultz for coming up with the hashtag

@hughcmcbride for scouring the net to find the most amazing Sharpie-inspired content to share

@sbeasla for responding to my initial tweet, which got the whole conversation going

Want your customers to love you? Remember to love them back! That's how brand loyalty is created. That's how you turn customers into full-fledged fans. That's how ordinary companies become extraordinary!