Denrael

Those of you that follow my blog, know that I am a very strong advocate of what I’ll call the “customer experience”. How much do you drive  your customers up the loyalty scale toward advocate or evangelist. This goes beyond well beyond what is typically thought of as customer loyalty. Let me give two examples.

I use Avis for my car rentals. In my mind, I could easily substitute Hertz, Budget, National, etc. The only thing that keeps me tied to Avis is that my company has a relationship with them, and for lack of any other reason, I use them. I’m what you call a force of habit customer. Last year, Avis had a promotion that offered free iTunes music on rentals. To promote that program, they gave their “preferred” customers a patch cord to allow them to easily plug in their iPods into car’s aux jacks. Where they failed, was in an inability to then insure that the cars I rented did have an aux jack. The next 4 rentals all had no ability to plug in the cord they gave me. When I asked at the counter, I was told that “obviously they had no ability to keep track of which cars had an aux port”. It might have been obvious to them, but to me it seemed like a natural element that had they been able to follow through, would have had me consciously wanting to rent from Avis because they were now meeting my wants and desires. This is a case where they aimed high, trying to hit a large customer base and fell short via follow-through.

Contrast that to Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s spends very little on advertising, yet they have extremely loyal customers. People talk about them to each other and the word of mouth marketing that they receive is nothing short of amazing. People aren’t just fans, they are literally ambassadors for the company. I’ve been a customer and fan of Trader Joe’s for years. When they moved into the Minneapolis region, I was very excited. I go there because they create a fun and relaxing shopping experience. Their staff in knowledgeable, and always available to help. Trader Joe’s takes the approach of one-on-one marketing in the way they treat their customers.

Last week, I took my mother into a Trader Joe’s. This was the day before she was going in for cataract surgery. During the shopping she asked one of the employees about english muffins. It turns out they are out of stock currently because of issues with their supplier. The person she had stopped at random, knew exactly the status, and was able to answer her questions in a helpful manner even though they were out of stock on the item. She was also able to let mom know that this was a temporary situation and they would be getting them in again soon.

Flash forward to the checkout experience. My mom was writing a check (this in Minnesota, checks are still common here) at the register. She apologized to the cashier because she was so slow as she was having a hard time seeing but she didn’t want to hold up the line. She also mentioned that she was having eye surgery in the morning. The cashier assured her that there was no problem, and to take her time. She also asked my mom what her favorite color was. My mom responded something along the line of “red I suppose”, and I have to admit I was scratching my head as to why that question. We finished the transaction, and as I was gathering the bag to take to the car, the cashier stepped away for a moment and came back with a dozen red and white roses which she gave to my mother with the wishes her surgery went well the next day. As you can imagine, my mother was blown away by this and has spent most of this week, telling everyone about what a wonderful place Trader Joe’s is, and how great the people are. In one brief moment, they turned her from a sometime shopper into a strong company advocate.

Customer loyalty is a tricky thing. Most companies approach it from the view of bribery. Loyalty cards, points programs, gift with purchase promotions, etc. Airlines are a prime example of this. They offer milage programs for free flights while at the same time, making it more and more painful to fly the airlines. They may be retaining the customer, but they are doing nothing to move them up the advocacy chain. Trader Joe’s gets it. They understand that building customer loyalty begins with the customer experience and that it is something that is done on a one-on-one basis, every time one of your employees comes in contact with a customer or prospect. Thank you Trader Joe’s for restoring my faith in modern business.