Category — Customer Service

The latest in a continuing series of small things that make people or businesses remarkable – worth talking about and spreading. What Seth Godin calls “a purple cow.”

Here are the others:  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Two remarkable people

The first is Bo Hume of American Airlines. Leigh McMullen of Cult of Mac left his iPad on a plane (didn’t even realize it). Bo tracked him down and returned it. Wouldn’t accept a reward either.

Louise Penny (one of my favorite mystery writers – and a great person too), is holding a drawing for advance copies of her new book. I wrote her a note asking her to enter my name.

I got a reply back five minutes later. And, it was clearly personal (OK, my note was silly – but still).

She’s a best-selling author, she’s busy, she was in the middle of working on her next book, but she took the time to respond to me.

Share your thoughts

Know any remarkable people or businesses? Have your own story? Share it in the comments.

Photo thanks to: heiwa4126

This is the third in a continuing series on how small differences can make you stand out from your competition in a big way.

The first two posts are here and here.

There was a big storm in the northeast last weekend. Bob Poole had major damage to his house; he said he felt like he was in The Wizard of Oz. He called several companies to come over and assess the damage. The first one arrived with a bouquet of flowers. He said, “Nobody else brought flowers. I bet they spend over $1,000 a year on flowers. They will more than recover that on this one job.”

Here’s another example. I recently wrote a guest post about writing great headlines. I suggested using magazines to get ideas for headlines, and gave a few examples of how to change the headlines so they worked for your business.

A small thing, but it made a big difference to Kiesha, who said she’d read many, many articles on writing headlines, but “this is the first that actually takes the time to do a brief, yet highly effective comparison to demonstrate how to actually make those magazine headlines apply to blogging! Awesome!”

What small steps could you take to be remarkable? Or, are you already doing something that makes you stand out? Tell us in the comments.

Flowers compliments of hello-julie

Milton Kramer got a check from the US government for one cent.  Fearing there might be some obscure regulation about not cashing government checks, he went to the bank. 

He handed it to the teller,  who glanced at the endorsement, then at the front of the check, and asked, “How would you like that sir?  Heads or tails?”

It was remarkable enough for Mr. Kramer to send it in to the New York Times (which has a column with reader submissions for tales of the big, bad city).  And noteworthy enough for The Times to print it, and for me to repeat it.

Small things can make a big difference in the way your clients perceive you.  Do a little something extra.  Give them free soup. Make them smile.  Send a note for no particular reason, except that it’s National Tortilla Chip Day (which it is).  Include some chips.

You can check out Part One here.

Photo compliments of sids1/

My mom got a  PajamaGram for Valentine’s Day yesterday.  It was packed in a pretty hatbox with a gauzy bow, bath salts, and a card. Someone clearly put a lot of thought into the packaging.

She not only loved the gift inside, she liked the hatbox so much she wanted to buy another one and use them for pretty storage boxes.

So she called PajamaGram.  No luck.  No matter how much she tried.  They wouldn’t give her one.  They wouldn’t sell her one.  They said she had to buy something to get another box.

Could have been a chance to make a happy customer even happier.  She would have told people.  She would have raved.

It would have been thoughtful. A great way to make a connection with a customer, and gain a new fan. But no. Instead, they followed the “rules.” They did what the manual and the lizard brain (don’t stick out, don’t make your own decisions, be afraid) told them to do.

So, instead of a rave, they get a big Bronx cheer.

Manuals are great when they protect you from dangerous mistakes (turn off the electricity before you touch an exposed wire). They’re not so good when they create a barrier between you and your client.

Image: morguefile

New York City’s streets are full of fruit stands.  Bananas for 25 cents each or a pound of grapes for $1.50. The prices are much lower than the markets and the fruit is fresh.

Free soup! Or was it?

There was one particular stand I used to buy from a lot. He’d often put in an extra piece of fruit; an apricot or an apple. I’d walk away feeling happy, thinking he was using a “free soup strategy” and being nice.

Then, one day, I bought fruit for prices that I could easily add up in my head: 5 bananas for $1, a box of strawberries for $2. He added an apple and told me the total was $2.50OOPS, I meant $3.50… I then realized what he’d really been doing. He was giving me extra fruit all right, but it wasn’t free! He was selling me bananas, and then figuratively throwing the peels on the sidewalk so I could slip on them.

I felt ripped off, and I’ve never bought fruit from him again. Heck, I don’t even like apricots! I just didn’t want to seem rude by turning down what I thought was a gift.

The big business version

Slate/The Big Money reported on November 25, 2009 that Best Buy sells a $40 optimization service for both Macs and PCs. According to the article, for $40 the buyer gets his/her name entered into the computer, a network connection check, a scan of the hard drive, and an anti-virus program installed.

There’s no reason for any of this. If you plan to use a computer, you probably can type your own name. The network in the store isn’t the network in your home or office, where the computer will actually be used. The drives are brand-new, so there’s nothing bad on them. Anti-virus software?! I’ve never seen a Mac virus, nor heard of anyone who has.

The author of the article talked with Ezra Gottheil [who works for an independent research firm called Technology Business Research]. Said Gottheil, ” ‘There’s nothing of that sort that any brand-new PC needs, and Macs less so’ ”

[I personally set my Mac up by myself in about 10 minutes, and I'm not a geek.]

Helping? Or pushing?

Slapstick is funny when the other guy slips on a banana peel. It’s not so funny when you invite your clients to fall down and hurt themselves.

If you’re offering an extra free service, offer one that has real value, and is really free. If you have an upgrade, it ought to be worth more to the client than the standard version.

Image: redster

UPDATE: Someone just pointed out that my math was messed up (told you I couldn’t add). However, since the rest of the comment was abusive and nasty, it has been deleted.