Once Is a Powerful Thing

In a split second, someone’s experience with your company can easily shape the entire relationship between the two of you for years to come. It sounds cliché, but it’s not exactly a common practice to translate what everybody “knows” into actual experiences that make people smile. Sure, in business school, you probably learned (or, hopefully, already knew) that if you make lots of mistakes with your customers, you’re not going to have many customers for very long. Still, at least in my experience, the managers, owners, and employees of the world rarely jump at the chance to not only fix or avoid mistakes, but to turn them into opportunities to create those memorably outstanding experiences that make people put you at the top of their list.

Just a few hours ago, while working on a project for a client of mine, I suddenly began to crave the perfect pizza that only Carrabbas can make. I called in a take-out order but, to my surprise, when I arrived, they had misunderstood my order and given me the wrong thing. What happens next should be underlined, italicized, emboldened, and written in size 40 font (but that wouldn’t be very easy to read).

The manager fixed the order in no less than five minutes but, during those five minutes, a waiter had me trying the dish that was served by mistake, drinking a complimentary soft drink, and talking with him about the incredible amount of training that is required to be a waiter at Carrabbas. Needless to say, the manager and employee at this particular Carrabbas have a better understanding of the power of experience than many companies ever will. With little effort, minimal expense, and a few minutes of simple conversation, Carrabbas has sold me for life. They didn’t just fix the problem; they turned it into an opportunity to create an experience that was out of the ordinary.

When you do something small to make a customer smile that ventures beyond their expectations, you begin a relationship that will keep them coming back. It doesn’t have to be big; you don’t have to give them the keys to your store or free food for a year. Just show them you understand who they are and where they’re coming from and they’ll return the favor. Not only will these experiences build stronger relationships between a customer and your company, they’ll open the door to an infinite number of new relationships as that customer tells his tale again and again.