Here's my assistant Maddie (she actually sends you this newsletter) and me in front of some of the bottles, and THE SHELVES.
The tequila business has gotten real enough that my wife, Alyson, begrudgingly let me purchase shelves for the bottles, a step up from random piles around our home.
I coveted shelves with lights. See above. Better for videos. Most shelves are non-illuminated, of course. Finally located lighted shelves at Wayfair.com.
Assembled them with MUCH help from my buddy Don, a mechanically-inclined pilot who stayed over for a night during one of his trips.
To my chagrin, discovered that the plug prong thingie that goes in the wall was broken off on one of the three shelving units. Can't have two light up and one dark...that would look
ridiculous!
I called Wayfair. Was able to get a real person on the line immediately. That was a shock. I explained my
plug problem, and she asked if they could send me a replacement plug. GREAT!
One week passes. No plug. Wayfair actually called
ME. Proactively! Also a shock. Manufacturer can't send plug. So, can they send a whole new unit, gratis? Very generous. Three problems:
- Did we really need a whole shelving unit to replace a plug?
- How would I dissemble the old unit and what to do with it?
- How long until Don is back in Indiana?
The plug connected to the shelving with what looked to be a pretty standard cord, so I told Ms. Wayfair that I thought I could conjure a replacement part on my own. I'm not ENTIRELY unresourceful.
I brought the broken pieces to the local electrical supply. They said they were overqualified to help, and what I needed was so common, it could be had on Amazon for a couple bucks. They were right.
One day later, new piece shows up. Shelves light up like the night sky above a manger in Bethlehem, but with more of a bottle glow.
Wayfair calls me a THIRD TIME, without me asking, to check my progress. I fixed it, I boasted. Ms. Wayfair shares in my triumph.
An hour later, a Wayfair gift card for $50 appears in my inbox, to cover my replacement plug, and my time.
And that's the way you win customer loyalty.
In the research for my book, Hug Your Haters (also a killer keynote speech, FYI), we proved mathematically that if customers have a problem, and your business can fix it, those customers go on to BUY MORE and STAY LONGER than customers that never had a problem at all.
Fascinating!
The
Machiavellian in me wants to create problems for my customers that I know I can solve, just to trigger this important psychological shift.
That may be a bit over the line, but you know what isn't?
Just fixing the problem. Not worrying about
scenario, or fault, or circumstance. Just. Fix. It.
A $50 gift card to earn the loyalty of the kind of weirdo who spends
$450 on light up bottle shelves is a very solid ROI.
In 2024, stop thinking about this kind of customer service as a cost, and
think of it as business development investment. Because done right, it is.
