My wife came home this afternoon after spending a gift voucher she received from me at a beauty salon. (Yes I’m a great Husband) She expressed to me her upset at the company for not honoring the product as it was laid out on the gift voucher. This company instead gave my wife the lesser treatments and explained, that is what they do with gift vouchers. My wife has since told all of her friends about this dishonoring and bad treatment, and no doubt her friends have told their friends.
This started me thinking, has this happened in my business? Could it happen in my business? Has it happened to me before? The answers: Yes Yes and Yes.
One promotion that we offer in all of my cafes is the 10th coffee free promotion. I have often perhaps because I haven’t made myself clear enough had to reiterate that with the free coffee the customer can have any coffee they like, small medium or large. I don’t care. I want my customers feel great about receiving their free coffee, certainly not to be met by a staff member insisting that they pay an extra 30c for a medium upgrade.
I also market my business in restaurant coupon books. My instruction to all of my staff about these coupons is that they treat the customer presenting these like a king or queen. These coupons bring new customers to my cafes, and I need my staff to do all they can to have that customer rave about us and tell more people about us. I don’t ever want my new customer to feel bad about having come to me with something designed to bring them to me.
If you’re offering discounts to a group of people, perhaps students or elderly, make sure your staff know this discount is offered because you want these people in your establishment and you want them to spread the word about the available discount to others in their group. This really is elementary stuff, but as with everything; if it’s not in the forefront of your mind it’s not likely applied.
It costs less to keep a customer once their in your doors than to find a new one. Give your guests a great experience and watch them market your business for you. Give them a bad experience and watch how fast it impacts on your business.
