No doubt you’ve heard that consumers will tell an average of six people about a bad experience. But do you know how long they’ll keep telling people what happened?
Twenty years.
Twenty years ago I walked into a Radio Shack to return a new phone. I had the box; I had the receipt. What I didn’t have was the instruction booklet that came with it.
The young clerk immediately started to process the return. Then the manager came over, went through the box and pounced on me as soon as he realized that the instruction booklet was missing.
We argued for a while. For whatever reason, he seemed intent on teaching me some kind of lesson.
Why not just say, “Get out! I hate you…I hate everyone who knows you! I don’t want your business…no one here does!” Because that’s what fighting with me really said.
Either you’re going to make someone happy or you’re not. In this case, the manager didn’t. And I haven’t bought so much as a battery from Radio Shack since.
If you ever try to teach a customer a lesson, you’ll accomplish three things:
- You’ll fail to teach the lesson
- You’ll lose the customer
- If that customer is anything like me, they’ll never forget the experience (or you).
Hell hath no fury like a baby gorilla scorned.
Apple has a sales and relationship process in their stores, that is the very best. The entire process makes you feel as though it is your idea. It should be viewed by other companies that need to move into today’s demands.