A small gesture...a big effect.
Published by Nichole on 6 August 2010.Recently I took my mom out shopping, you see her birthday is coming up and I really wanted to get her the perfect gift but I was stuck for ideas, so for the day I was being the sneaky observer. After several laps around the mall without any clues, a sparkle in a window caught her eye, so in we went - to the jewellery store. Now I know you all know the dread of the pushy sales people, I had that feeling too, but read on, I was pleasantly surprised.
Upon entering we were greeted by a lovely clerk, we browsed the cases for a few minutes before she approached again. At that point, sensing that she was stalking us as her prey my guard went up and I let out a polite but direct just looking thanks.
Well, not only did she accept that, she encouraged it, pulling out anything and everything for us to try on regardless of price - smart, she knew not to brush us off, to stay engaged - just because you don't buy it now, doesn't mean you won't come back!
In the end, she helped me to find something my mom had been searching for for quite some time, it wasn't anything fancy or terribly expensive but she treated us as though we had just spent a million dollars. A wonderful experience, but wait, it's not over!
Yesterday I arrived home to find a piece of mail from this jewellery store, I thought Great, they added me to their mailing list, but it wasn't a flyer, it was a hand written thank you card from the clerk that included the details of my experience there, what I bought, who it was for and for what occasion. It made me smile. I felt valued as a customer and immediately told all of my friends and family what a fantastic place it was to shop at. I will definitely return.
Customer experience, it is what you make it. Have you made your customers smile today?
