I’ve talked about customer service a fair bit around here. I’ve shared stories from Cingu&T, Bank of America, Farbucks, and a few other greats. This story, pointed out by the Nitro Marketing Blog, ranks right up there.

Short version: A woman spends an hour shopping, finds the perfect dress for an event, the store refuses to sell it to her because it lacks a tag. Then they refuse to sell another dress to her because the top and bottom don’t match perfectly. She leaves, tells the world.

What I haven’t explicitly stated yet, though, is the point. Maybe I don’t need to, but here it is anyway. The point is that customer service is one of your strongest moments of impression with your consumer. You’ve made something they want. You’ve made them aware of it. You’ve gotten them into your store (or catalog or website, whatever). You’ve probably spent a TON of money to achieve all that. And you can screw it up in a matter of seconds. Do you think the woman above is going back to that store any time soon? Do you think her friends will?

Now picture this ending: what if, just this once, you GAVE someone something. Forget the obvious of it being inexcusable to refuse to sell someone merchandise simply because it has no tag. What if the manager had said "hmm, no tag, it must be free" and put the dress in a bag for the customer? What an opportunity for a moment of remarkability. How many of the lady’s friends do you think would now start shopping there? Or tell their friends about this store? All for the price of a dress that will probably end up either sitting in the back for a decade or get stuck on a sale rack with some arbitrary price on it.

Yeah, yeah, I know, stores are in business to make money. Barring that, at least go so far as to figure out how to sell your merchandise. At least then you’re not throwing your customers away. 

Technorati Tags: beyond madison avenue, customer service