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Recently shopped at a Dierberg’s in St. Louis…but not my usual store so items were not where I was used to finding them.  Found a wonderful guy stocking apples who answered EVERY question about where something was…got them all right and he even walked me to one aisle because he was not sure it would be there…and it was!  I apologized for interrupting him while he was replenishing the fruit but he said it was no problem and he was curious to see how many he got right!  He passed with flying colors.  Then on the checkout line, I looked and looked for Time Magazine on the ends of the checkout lanes and couldn’t find it.  So I asked a manager who was talking to a cashier (no one was on that line) if they carried Time. and the manager waved in a direction and said somewhat curtly that magazines were over by the bakery.  Not a very friendly response, but I trotted down to the bakery – looked at all the categories, and didn’t find Time.  Ran back to get in my place in line and said to that manager, in a snippy tone,  “if you are curious …the answer to the question about whether you carry time magazine is NO.”  A few minutes later he found it on one of the ends of the register lanes and brought it to me.  So…he redeemed himself, but it would have been much nicer if he had found it for me originally, instead of sending my off to search on my own to a place that didn’t have it.  In Trader Joes, they take you RIGHT to the item you are asking for/searching for.  A very nice and friendly customer service touch.  This Dierberg’s manager needs to shop at Trader Joes and see how it is done.

How often do you find someone who just provides a good idea without any expectation of reward?  Karen Hoffman of The Idea Coach is such a person!  She came up with “baggie’ envelopes that she passes out at networking events so people can put the cards they collect inside the bag…and remember WHERE they collected that card!  Cool idea and she just hands them out.  Her information is inside on a card that says Turning Contacts into Connections and it has the event printed too…but that’s fine to remind us of her great idea!  Kudos to Karen.

 It is so nice when something that could have been a terrible situation is fixed so quickly and graciously by the company who made the mistake.  Wish we all respond like this to the situation below in this manner.

I was sitting with a woman who had organized her annual golf tournament.  She had ordered 72 DOZEN golf balls with the company logo.  The balls needed to be in her office by mid-day Friday, in time for the Monday morning tee-off of the event.  When she checked the status Tuesday of the prior week she learned that the balls had been printed…and sent regular mail.  The printer was NOT sure they would arrive by Friday.  Of course, they hadn’t arrived by Friday at noon, so the woman called the company and explained that an order MUST be delivered by Saturday.

The company reprinted the 72 DOZEN golf balls and overnight shipped them to her for Saturday delivery and the event tee-ed off as scheduled!

That company 1) accepted the problem was their problem and 2) fixed it!

That’s all we can expect from a provider, and what we must promise to deliver to our customers.

Bad Sales

Everyone wants more business, right?  And everyone wants to see a good ROI on their advertising dollars too, right?  Well here is a situation where I was a prospect READY to buy and the company lost the sale. 

I called an ad in the Ladue News (not inexpensive to put an ad in there) about resealing our patio.  It’s poured, crushed river rock and I was told it needs to be resealed every 3 years.  It was time.  The ad was there when I needed it.  I called and talked to a lovely young lady who took my name and number and said a sales person/estimator would call to set up the appointment to come out and give a quote.  I NEVER heard from that company.  Why would any company waste valuable advertising dollars and then drop the ball when an inquiry came in…just the result they wanted?  And, I’m sure she never put me in a database to email me periodically.  Of course, we don’t know if she ever gave him the message or if he got it and forgot to call me.  I found another company.  The job was $650.  I would think in this economy any small business would welcome a $650 sale.  The lessons to be learned:

 1)     Capture every inquiry in a database

 2)     Set up a system for every inquiry to ensure that the prospect is called, quoted, offered, reclosed and sold or added to informational communications (mail or email) to stay visible until the next time.  Don’t drop the ball!  Prospects from expensive advertising are too valuable to waste no matter what the economic environment is!

Welcome to Sam Black’s blog.  Hope you enjoy the stories and learn lessons about excellence in sales and customer service