Don't be so petty...

Generosity in customer service is worth thinking about. In this video from Florida in 2011, I talk about American shops where I sometimes experienced more flexibility than expected.

Generosity in customer service on a special offer

I’d seen offers saying you had to buy two items to get a discount. In some shops, I could buy one and still get the reduced price.

I also found that discounts could be combined or a shop would accept a competitor’s coupon. Those were my experiences in the shops I’d visited, not a rule for all American businesses.

What I liked was the feeling that the shop was trying to be nice to the customer rather than turning a small matter into a problem.

What atmosphere do your rules create?

I understand that some customers hunt for discounts and try to get as much as possible. That can be irritating for a business.

But if you shape all your communication around the few who push it, everyone else may feel that distrust too. It can create a negative atmosphere before the transaction has even begun.

In my opinion, that applies to a physical shop, an online shop and a restaurant alike. The aim is happy customers who feel they’re treated properly. I discuss my own experiences with people and good service in businesses in Min vej som leder.

Choose where to put your energy

Perhaps one customer gets a little more discount than you’d ideally give. My thought was whether you could sometimes live with that if lots of others had a good experience in return.

It’s a consideration about service and generosity, not a requirement to accept every request. Look at which small conflicts actually help your business and which simply make shopping with you less pleasant.

Rain in Florida as Irene passed

It was raining in Florida when I made the video. Hurricane Irene was out around the Bahamas, and at the time I described it as category four and about 200 kilometres from us. That was my description of the situation during recording.

I was relieved it looked as though we’d escape it. We were still on alert because things could change. I was ready to put up shutters and leave if necessary. We’d bought extra water, and the petrol generator was ready if the power went out.

I hadn’t experienced a hurricane myself. People had told me one of the worst parts could be afterwards, coming home and having no power for a week or two. I imagined a house in 35-degree heat with no air conditioning, television, lights, fridge or freezer. It didn’t sound very appealing.

But it was actually another thought I wanted to share: Why I often preferred shopping in American stores. I’d talked about service before. This time, it was about experiencing less pettiness.

The discount even though I only bought one

I used an offer on peaches as an example. If a sign said you could buy two at a good price, I found in many places that I could also buy one and get the discount. So I didn’t need to buy more than I wanted to get the reduced price.

I didn’t necessarily think very many customers asked for it. But I liked the attitude: Why turn a little thing into a conflict? That was the feeling of flexibility I appreciated.

A coupon and another discount on top

I also found you could combine discounts. If you had a coupon and, for example, an agreement for 15 percent off for another reason, the shop could both deduct the coupon and give the percentage discount.

A third example was a competitor’s coupon. If another shop offered a discount on pineapples, in some places I could show the coupon and get a matching discount where I was. Those were my impressions of shops back then, not a promise about what every shop would accept.

In my view, discount coupons weren’t particularly widespread in Denmark at the time. I thought there was something to learn from the American attitude towards them: Trying to be nice to the customer.

The few bargain hunters shouldn’t set the tone

Of course some customers hunted for discounts and tried to combine everything. That could be irritating. I just thought some shops ended up protecting themselves from the few by sending negative signals to everyone else.

In my opinion, a message saying a discount couldn’t be combined with anything else could create a bad atmosphere. I’d rather customers felt it was a decent shop that treated them well.

Perhaps one customer got a little extra discount or screwed you over. Of course that was irritating. But if hundreds of others had a good experience in return, I thought it was worth considering whether that small expense was so terrible.

It was the same consideration whether you had an online shop, a physical shop or a restaurant. It was about having happy customers.

My invitation to Aminotastic in September 2011

I ended by hoping people would come to Aminotastic on 10 September. We were starting at 5 pm after Iværk & Vækst and continuing until 11 pm with networking and good food.

Thomas Rosenstand was going to talk about the USA, Soulaima Gourani about using the evening to network, and Mikkel deMib was hosting. Rolf Høegh was talking about sales. I called his book about selling better something of a bible for me, although I didn’t consider him my mentor in the more formal sense.

My own talk was going to be about tackling the crisis. At the time, I expected several more years of crisis and wanted to discuss both handling it mentally and perhaps emerging wealthier on the other side with your business.

Many people from Amino’s discussions would be there, so you could meet them in real life. After 11 pm, those of us who hadn’t grown too old could head to Søpavillonen and party until dawn. That was my invitation back then, and I referred to Aminotastic.dk.

So it’s almost your last chance to buy tickets for Aminotastic – click here
And if you’re not a Plus member, you get a free trial month with your purchase.

The mention of Aminotastic and the trial month comes from the original post in 2011.

De bedste hilsner

Martin