10 x 10 x 10 customers can really hurt!
What does loyalty cost? Are you familiar with the old saying: 10 customers tell 10 more customers who tell another 10 about a poor service or product?
Recently I was at a show when a visitor walked up to the counter and asked what we thought the breakage policy should be!
While it was an unusual question, I guess breakages at shows do happen. But rarely do we hear about them.
Stop them in their tracks!
You have less than 5 seconds to gain someone’s attention at a show.
I call it the ‘billboard message’. What can you say in one short sentence (six words or less) to get their attention?
The message needs to be a benefit to the customer. Too many companies get carried away with their name and tag line, but if a customer doesn’t know who you are, how will that help?
By focussing on a benefit that can be seen as a solution to your customer’s problems, you become a destination for them to stop at.
Also consider the font size of the lettering and don’t get fancy. Simple, black Helvetica font is the surest way to be read.
Our coordinator gave a logical reply, “the same as a retail shop”. I couldn’t help myself. I asked what the retail shop policy was. Surely it varied by shop and by product as well as how much the customer was valued? I asked the visitor what happened.
She claimed she picked up an item which fell out of her hands and broke. She then went to the exhibitor and told them what happened. This customer maintained that if she had said nothing, the exhibitor would be none the wiser. She described an unpleasant exchange that followed between them, ending in her feeling humiliated and being forced to pay for the breakage.
Her complaint was as much about how she was spoken to as the issue of whether she was responsible. She added that she would never buy from this exhibitor again and would ensure through friends, word of mouth and social media that everyone would know! You could tell this angry woman was going to make it her mission.
How much did it cost? It was small and retailed for $8. While I am not an expert, the item sourced from China would have cost the exhibitor somewhere between $1 and $2 at most. I couldn’t believe an exhibitor, who wouldn’t have been any wiser if the visitor wasn’t honest, would do such a thing. I leant over to our cash tin and gave the women $8. She asked, “What are you doing? It’s not your fault and it wasn’t your stand.” I said, “Yes, you’re right. But have you otherwise enjoyed your day?” She replied saying she had spent hundreds of dollars. Then she lifted her bags. She had heaps!
I said, “Well when you leave, I want you to tell 10 of your friends (who will tell 10 of theirs and so on) that the organisers of the show gave your money back saying they wanted you to leave with good memories of your day.” I added that the unpleasant experience was just how badly one exhibitor handled it!
She then asked for my name so she could write to my manager to let them know about the great customer service, care and compassion she experienced!
Sometimes you need to stand back and take a look at ‘goodwill’ – for what it is and what it is worth. The power of friends, networks and personal recommendations is invaluable, and now with social media connections added to the mix, what’s goodwill worth if the wrong message gets out?
If the exhibitor had handled that situation differently, maybe this customer would be telling her friends how she was a duffer and how great the exhibitor was because of how well they handled the incident. Instead the exhibitor just lost themselves a heap of potential business because this customer now has only bad things to say about them. The other concern here is that this could affect all exhibitors because eventually they all get grouped into the same category.
On the other hand, we generated a heap of goodwill for our business. We could see her going viral and singing our praises and as it turns out the letter did come through! You never know, I might just win the Outstanding Employee Award!
For the record, there is no specific policy from the Retail Traders’ Association on breakages. However their advice to exhibitors is to erect a sign stating who is responsible in the event of accidental damage to their goods. And the default legal position is that the exhibitor is liable for breakages under the legal definition of negligence. Unfortunately though, once it becomes a blame-game, the relationship with the customer is blown!
Customers can be challenging, however when things go bad it’s how we deal with the situation and manage the outcome that really counts.
See you on the floor,
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