Publishers Weekly is considered the bible of the publishing world.
They’ve printed the first public review of my upcoming book and said,
“…the lessons are solid and thought-provoking and should
prove a genuine eye-opener for many business owners and managers.”
You can read the entire review here.
If you haven’t pre-ordered a copy, you can pre-order from Amazon here or any other favorite book seller. I’ve got some great freebies and bonuses for pre-orders available here.
Anyways…
I was reading the review on my iPhone as I stood at the front door of a restaurant ignored by three waitresses while the bartender was busy texting. I was finally met by a grumpy hostess who told us it would be another 15 minutes before a table was ready.
I waited in the car as my wife ran into a shop to pick something up. She came back empty handed – the order wasn’t ready even thought she was assured it would be there.
Last week I went to pick up some printing – it was done incorrectly. The clerk was convinced I had done something wrong, until he looked at my details and saw it was their mistake.
I stood at the concierge desk at my hotel for 15 minutes while the concierge helped a person–who was not a guest of the hotel–with directions on their tour guide map.
We went to a car dealer and told the salesman we were there to buy a new car; he seemed annoyed as it was rather hot outside. He quickly asked, “How soon?” My wife said, “tomorrow.” It would have been that day, but we had to pick up our daughter. He promised to email us a quote that night.
It never arrived.
When I emailed and asked for the quote, he replied with the digits and nothing more. When I asked for more details on the model he gave us pricing on, for example, he told me, “you can find it on the website.”
I purchased something on eBay from a respected company. My item never shipped. Finally, I got a snarky email from a customer service rep saying my payment never arrived and they would be reporting me to eBay for non-payment. When I showed them proof it was indeed sent, within seconds of ordering, the item was released for shipment, but nobody ever responded to apologize.
People will still frequent the restaurants, visit those shops, buy cars from lousy salesman, stay at these hotels, and purchase stuff from companies.
But I might not. Was it worth it?
Mistakes happen. People have a bad day. Even MdDonald’s forgets the pickles once and a while. It’s how the mistakes are handled that matters.
Customer retention starts LONG before the sale is ever made.
The story I’m telling you today is not the story you want being told about your company.
You’re in charge of writing your company’s narrative – are your customers telling the right story?
