A few years ago, I posted about a spine-tingling customer loyalty tale. Now that it’s Halloween, I think it merits resurrecting.
I read a consumer’s blog post that described her harrowing experience as she tried to redeem a $20 reward she received from a retailer. Excited to receive her treat, she happily entered the sponsoring retailer – unsuspecting of the horror that awaited her.
Rigor Mortis Rules
Standing in the check-out line only to be told that she needed to wait in another line at Customer Service to redeem her “reward” was enough to bring forth a blood-curdling scream. But it got worse. After waiting yet again, she was told that she could not redeem the reward because her purchase was $19.99 – a penny short of the face value of her award. She offered to give them the additional penny – but that didn’t fly. Reluctantly, this customer added a tube of lip balm to her purchase so that the total would exceed the required $20.
RIP Customer Loyalty
I left out a few of the gory details but ultimately the length of this customer’s nightmare was 35 minutes. The last line of her blog post encapsulated her new sentiment: “Way to make me feel rewarded!” Sounds like her loyalty may have met the Grim Reaper.
Turn Chilling into Thrilling
There are some ways to help you avoid dreadful outcomes like this:
1. Make it easy for customers. If this customer didn’t exaggerate her story and indeed had to wait in two lines to use her reward – shame on the retailer. Every customer experience needs to be simple and convenient.
2. Empower the front line. Clearly this customer had a frustrating experience. Trained customer-facing employees should have recognized this and had the latitude to rectify it immediately. Never, ever let a customer go home angry or disappointed.
3. Don’t be so rigid. Sometimes we can get so caught up in the rules that we risk alienating customers rather than endearing them. It is indeed frightful to think a customer relationship was jeopardized over a single penny.
Keep an Eyeball on the Big Picture
Customer relationships are much bigger than a single encounter. Every touch point – online, in person, over the phone – is an opportunity to build or erode loyalty. Businesses today can’t afford to put future business in jeopardy over a single instance. Remember, happy customers will tell a few friends. Unhappy customers will tell the world.
So, what loyalty experiences have you encountered lately? Were they tricks? Or, were they treats? Please share!
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