Exceeding your customers' expectations is often really quite easy. I was purchasing a chocolate bar recently, looking for an afternoon energy boost. It was only about $1.50 and I took it to the counter. The man serving me asked if I was planning on eating the bar today and I said I would be devouring it the minute I left the shop. He suggested that I buy the same bar that was on special in a discount box that was half price because it was almost out of date. As I was going to eat it straight away, it made no difference to me. To make the deal even better, he said that if I wasn't completely satisfied with the discounted bar he would give me the original one for free. How could I go wrong?
All of this service and recommendation happened over a $1.50 chocolate bar. I go back to this shop on a regular basis simply because of the service that I received and didn't expect to receive.
I visited a bottle shop recently to buy some wine and beer for a dinner party. There was a new brand of beer on the market that I had seen advertised that looked good and it was being sold at a good introductory price, but I thought that I would play it safe and buy the usual product. The salesman started up a conversation and I told him my concerns. He immediately offered me one of the new beers to try, which I did. I ended up buying a carton. This bottle shop is out of my way, it's not necessarily the cheapest and it's a pain to park, but I always go back because of the service that I get.
If the salesman isn't too busy, he even carries my purchases out to the car. This is out of the ordinary and, in my eyes, very good service. While I feel special as a customer, I notice that he treats all of his customers in a similar manner. This is a very successful bottle shop that thrives with no advertising.
Good customer service is all about details and doing the small, unexpected things. If you remember back to the beginning of this blog, I mentioned that the key to successful customer service is to meet, and where possible exceed, your customers' expectations. Look for ways to do the little, unexpected things to make your business stand out from the crowd when it comes to customer service. People will talk about the extra little things that you do and word will spread that your business is better than the rest.