Recently, I had two dramatically different customer service experiences on the same day, and felt the need to share the contrast between the two. The two examples show the awareness, and alternatively, the lack thereof, of the lifetime value of a customer.
I'd started out the day deciding to take my daughter out for a little treat at my favorite little neighborhood coffee shop. I had a small standing credit at the shop from a gift certificate a friend had purchased for me a while back, and figured that would let us order what we wanted without guilt. Just a fun special treat for the two of us. Here, I need to point out that the shop changed hands several months earlier, and the previous owners, who had become dear to my heart, are no longer there. The new owner greeted us in a fake half smile. No recognition that I had ever been in the shop before. She silently, and somewhat glumly, made our order. I then told her I was using up the rest of my gift certificate. They have an "old fashioned" way of accounting for these in a little file box, so I prepared to tell her my name so she could look it up. She very matter of factly told me that she had given people a deadline to use their credits from the old owner, but that they had all expired a few months ago. Just sort of "sorry, that's the way it is," as I expressed my disappointment. So all of a sudden, our little treat, which I'd thought was going to be on my generous friend who had purchased the gift certificate, was now on me. So that brought us down a notch, and we sat at our little table, whispering about how mean the girl was. I decided right then and there that I wouldn't be going back! Does she care? No. But that's the problem. She should. She had no understanding about the lifetime value of a customer. Had she been a little more friendly and honored my little $20 gift certificate when I asked, she could have totally turned things around. But she was more concerned about saving a couple dollars in that one transaction than she was about saving me for the long term. People don't spend much in a coffee shop at any one time, but we all know how much a coffee shop can eek out of us over the course of a year. And she lost every future penny from me. Not to mention those of my friends who I used to always bring along with me. Bummer for me. Bummer for her.
Later that day I made my way to the Apple Store due to some problems with my laptop. Not only did my power cord not work, but I also had a cracked screen! Yikes, I wasn't looking forward to how much this was going to cost me. I'd purchased Apple Care, so I figured they'd probably replace the cord since there no visible damage, but I knew better about the cracked screen. I'd signed up for my appointment on their easy-to-use website, and they were right there to help me at my assigned time. Perfectly friendly and welcoming, too, although they'd never seen me before in their life. The guy took a few minutes to look over the problems and told me they'd be happy to give me a new cord. The cracked screen was not covered by Apple Care and had a hefty price of nearly $500 ... bummer!..., but, he said, he'd go ahead and cover it for me anyway. Of course, I was jumping for joy (well, inside my head, anyway) and left the store a super happy camper. I love Apple, in large part because they did the same thing several years earlier when I dropped my iPhone and it cracked. Not covered, but they covered it anyway. They know that over the years I'll spend many more thousands of dollars on their products. It's worth it to them to go the extra mile and me happy now, even if it costs them a little more. With customer service like that, is it any wonder they're one of the top-valued companies in the world?
Part of me wants to explain to the new owner of my ex-favorite coffee shop how should could have handled things differently, and why I won't be coming back, and why a lot of her former customers won't be coming back, but she wasn't even warm enough to make me want to bother. I have a new favorite coffee shop where the owner knows my name. I'll be taking my laptop with shiny new screen there from now on.
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