Posted by on Oct 20, 2008 in Marketing | 3 comments

My husband and I were out for dinner the other night.  The kitchen was extremely slow, but the waiter, was awesome.  He seemed to know, almost instinctively when to pop by, explain the delay, refill a glass and leave us alone.  The food was worth the wait, but it was the service that made the evening. Sometimes all it takes is a smile or a pleasant greeting to win a customer.

In a recent blog post Seth Godin advances a very simple concept : The little things, a smile or empathetic response to a problem may be all that is required to diffuse a tense situation, or win a customer for life.

With all the money you spend on marketing to bring customers in the door are you spending enough to keep them happy once they arrive?

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  • http://www.adriliavpedersen.com Adrilia V. Pedersen

    I completely agree. This is one of the issues that puzzles me about customer service and customer service training. Marketers spend gigantic amounts to attract a prospect or to convert a lead … yet right in one moment of poor customer service; one moment of truth … it can all be gone! It’s so important for everyone having contact with a customer to be well trained and clear about what the company is building and where everyone is going — vision, mission and strategy. As your evening out attests to … it is the experience that we remember most.

  • http://www.myrlandmarketing.com Nancy Myrland

    Lorraine, glad you had such a wonderful experience. To get true viral marketing rolling, please share the restaurant if you can!

    Ahhh…keeping customers/clients once they start to do business with you….that is the fun part, and yet, so often overlooked, isn’t it? Included in all marketing plans for next year should be face-to-face client satisfaction interviews. They are one of the most important client retention and growth strategies we have available to us.

  • http://www.roundpeg.biz Lorraine