Your marketing efforts should include the customer experience you provide. The better experience you provide a customer the more likely they will be a repeat customer as well as a customer who refers. Let me share a recent experience I had to illustrate what I consider a really great customer experience.
I was out for dinner with a group of eight people. By most restaurant standards that is considered a large party. As soon as our party was situated we were immediately greeted by s smiling waitress who inquired if we were celebrating a special occasion due to the size of our group. We explained that we were, in fact one of the women was completing her masters degree and we had just come from the nearby college where we attended an event.
The waitress took our drink order and was back within just minutes with all eight drinks in hand. She immediately advised us of the evenings specials and offered to take out order. The ordering process and food delivery was flawless and quick. I observed that this waitress had many other tables but at no point did we ever feel neglected.
At the end of the meal she cleared out plates promptly and only one person proceeded to order dessert. The waitress came back with the dessert meant for one but was obviously much larger in size and said after everyone got a look at the dessert she was sure everyone would want a taste so she said “I made it a little larger and brought spoons for everyone to give it a try.” WOW, what a lovely gesture and yes she charged us for only one dessert.
To top off the experience when our waitress brought the check she said to my friend for whom we were celebrating, “we would like to provide your meal complimentary in support of your academic achievement!”
Needless to say, this waitress and the restaurant went out of their way to provide such an amazing customer experience that I have told many people, I’m sure the other people in our party have done the same and here I am writing about it.
When you provide an exemplary customer experience it can be shared quickly and is so valuable. In today’s world where there are so many online review sites I encourage you to leave reviews when you receive great service. I also encourage you to ask your customers to write reviews for you. Make it simple by providing them a link to the site where you want them to place the review and when they do, be sure to respond and thank them.
If you receive a negative review you have the opportunity to respond and make it right. Oh and if you are in Minneapolis or St. Paul, be sure to check out Highland Grill where I had such a great customer experience.
Want another example of a great customer experience? Read my article about Whole Foods.
