He didn’t have to do it. He’s got, literally, hundreds of customers who want what he’s got, and they’re willing to pay handsomely for it. But the fact that he did this for ME… well, if I wasn’t a customer for life before, I certainly am now (I was before this, but I’m now cemented in concrete as a lifetime loyalist).

I’ve been overly conscious of great customer service lately.

I’m sure there are reasons beyond my brain capacity. Part of it is my skepticism with AI as I see that technology overtake call centers as well as other parts of business that used to be done by humans. The other part of it is that I, like most humans, like to interact with other humans when we’re making purchases. Whether I’m buying a product in a store or dialing up a plumber to blast the clog from my toilet, I want to talk to a human.

I’m equally cognizant of bad customer service. We recently did a destination Thanksgiving to Myrtle Beach. We had a glorious week, but not all of the wait staff at all of the establishments we sampled were glad to have our business.

Finally, I’m growing increasingly impatient and angry with companies that make my first interaction with some sort of bot, and because the bot isn’t programmed properly, not only can’t it answer my question, but I also can’t get past the bot to talk to a human without going through a Rubik’s Cube of shenanigans.

Small business owners, please do not do this to your customers. If you’ve started down this horrible rabbit hole, reverse course. Your business will be better off.

I was searching for a particular bottle of scarce bourbon for my son-in-law for Christmas, now also the father of my first grandbaby. So, I called my awesome bourbon steward, Nick Roberts. I’ve written about Nick’s incredible marketing and business acumen in these spaces before.

I texted Nick to see if he had the bottle that I was searching for. He said he had it, but it was already gone because he’d been given such a small supply. He suggested some other places for me to search. And then he texted me and asked me when I was coming for a visit. I live in south central Pennsylvania, and Nick’s store is 40 minutes southeast of me across the Maryland line. He said, “I’ve got something I’d like to offer you the next time you’re in.” I said, are you going to be in on Saturday morning, and after he confirmed, I told him I’d be down.

We sampled several new bourbon offerings Nick had in, and there were several other customers around the barrel. After some nice conversation and even nicer samples, I grabbed the bottles that I wanted to purchase, and I headed for checkout. Nick said, “I’ll meet you there.” As I was putting my bottles on the counter, Nick came out of the back room and pulled a bottle out of a sleeve. It was Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year. It’s an extremely difficult bottle to find. It came on the truck with Nick’s delivery from the Buffalo Trace Distillery. He remembers that BT is my favorite distillery. Honestly, he might’ve received just that one bottle of Old Rip Van Winkle. Maybe two, but no more than that. I added it to my purchase without asking the price. And I left the store on cloud 10. Bourbon aficionados will understand my joy. I don’t remember anything that happened the remainder of my Saturday.

In a blog post by Canon titled “How Positive Engagement Creates Loyal Customers,” they cited interesting statistics from a variety of reports.

  • One report found that 94% of customers are loyal to brands that deliver consistently strong customer experiences, while 73% are loyal because of effective customer service.
  • A second report found that 47% of consumers stop doing business with a brand that continues to frustrate them.
  • A third study found that 83% of customers identified their brand loyalty as stemming from the trust established through good customer service. I’ve written about the importance of Trust before.

It’s an important distinction made in the first bullet point above. What I witnessed when I was shown the bottle of rare bourbon was a customer experience. I was delighted by the thoughtfulness of the store manager. Customer service can also delight and provide joy, but it’s often associated with how customers are treated when they call you with a complaint or a problem. My recommendation is that we eliminate the Customer Service moniker and we always use the term Customer Experience. If we always ask ourselves what type of EXPERIENCE our customer had, it serves us better than asking how they were serviced.

Canon concluded the blog post by encouraging the personal touch. It said that in today’s marketplace, where chatbots, AI, and call center staff who are unfamiliar with the biz they represent, personalized customer care will separate you from your competitors.

Does your small business create special customer experiences that delight and surprise your customers? Do your customer experiences convert occasional customers to loyal-for-life friends? If you answered “yes,” give me a call and I’ll help you tell everyone in your market your great story. If you answered hesitantly, and you’re not sure, give me a call, and we’ll fix your customer experience… and then we’ll tell everybody about it.

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