Now, I had a stack of these little slips of cardboard that was over 2 feet tall with the stacks rubber banded together. Do you think I’m ever going to trust their nice marketing department after my little bonfire? Nope I’m not. My only mistake was not filming the pyrotechnics while disparaging their program rules & then posting the whole thing on youtube… But I don’t roll like that, I’d rather talk smack about the company when I get an opportunity to discuss the facts of their marketing down the road.

Gabriella

Now I need to do this with my online customers. Thanks for the reminder!

Anyway. Moving on.

@ Dave N – Anytime you need an ass kicking, I am your chica.

@ Shane – Stay tuned. All will be revealed.

@ Brandon – Yes. To all of it. And additionally… in a service business, the vast majority of post-sale purchases have extremely high mark-ups. When I buy phone service for thirty bucks, they don’t keep a lot of it. But when I buy call forwarding for five bucks, they keep almost all. The majority of corporate overhead comes from the initial sale. The rest is gravy, and companies just stick their fingers in their ears and say “LALALA” and ignore it.

@ Charlie – Thank you! I think that’s the key – you have to value people. It’s not just about answering the phone on the first ring or having a money-back guarantee. It’s about treating your customers not just like people, but like people that you like.

@ Dave C – We have a restaurant like that here. Do you have The Keg in the states? Anyway, it’s a chain of restaurants and it’s on the pricey side. You can get a comparable steak for about half the price pretty much anywhere in the country but the service, at least at the one near us, is unparalleled. No matter who it is – the host, the server, the bartender, the busboy – they’re all practically deferential. And I keep going back, for every special occasion, every year. (I also order the same thing every time, but that’s because I’m a loser with no sense of adventure.)

Instead of thinking how they can actually use this to their benefit, companies strategize around the question, “what is the minimum amount of money and effort that we can put into old customers to retain their business”, as opposed to the question that new businesses and independents think around, “how can we spoil our existing customers and by doing so mobilize them as the greatest marketing team in the world?”.

Anyways, great post, it’s always oddly heartwarming to hear about that kind of genuine customer service and followup marketing. I guess I say oddly because of how jaded we can get about business and consumerism today.. but yeah, its nice to hear when people actually get it.

Which leads to me the eternal question that no one ever answers:

what is the difference between marketing and sales?

Thanks for the kick in the ass. Now I’m off to touch base with all my customers again :-)