How do you get them? My belief is that you get them by doing the right thing, which is often, just treating them the way you would want to be treated. You put policies in place that are necessary for your business, but you bend them if it makes sense. That’s sort of basic Customer Service 101.
However, I also believe that you can get customers for life when you have made a mistake and you feel like you’ve lost them. I think sometimes fixing something what was broken, and making everyone feel really good about it, can almost be more effective them being really awesome from the start. It builds a camaraderie, and a sense of “we are in this together, we are invested, we are willing to work together for a great outcome.”
I had sort of a bad experience at the gym yesterday. I typically don’t blog about bad experiences or post about them because I really don’t like to throw vendors under the bus. I wouldn’t want someone to do it to me, even if I had really screwed up. But since I am really happy right now, I’ll tell you a little bit about it.
There is a guy who works at the gym who was trying to enforce a policy. He is a very nice guy and it is an important policy. But by enforcing it, and not bending it for me, it royally screwed up my day. On any other day, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But it was a big deal yesterday. I have worked so hard to lose weight and force myself to run and exercise. I was looking forward to going to the gym like Christofer looks forward to riding his new bike. I had the timing planned precisely so that it would line up with getting home for naps, a client visit and a peaceful rest of the day. I pretty much spent my morning screaming at my kids… any day that I do that is a bad day. But I have about 4 galleries to get out, I am about to be late on one (sorry Newman family and Alexis and Lisa), and am launching our workshop product. I kept saying “calm down, not their fault, just make it until 10 and you can get to the gym, run out this anxiety and everything will be SO GOOD!” In past months I think I would have bailed on the gym totally and forced early naps. So I am about to leave for the gym, kids are ready, and I realize I haven’t packed snacks. I pack them up. While doing that, Janey takes her shoes off. I put them back on. She poops. I take them off, I change her diaper, I put them back on. Christofer has to poop. This takes 20 minutes. Janey takes her shoes off. Christofer finishes. Janey’s shoes go back on. We get in the car. Janey unbuckles her car seat (yes, she can do that). I pull over and buckle her back in. We get to the gym at 11:10. I drag them through the parking lot, and it IS dragging since Janey won’t hold my hand (and it’s kind of raining). I get in, I pay for child care, I get them to childcare. I am down to about 45 minutes to work out.
But I can’t work out because I don’t have my lisence to leave my kids in child care. And this is the new policy. Must have lisence. [Go ahead, all you people that are wondering why on earth I'd be driving without my lisence... I HAVE a lisence now, it just wasn't on me].
Again, any other day I would have been very happy for the exercise to not work out. In fact, in the parking lot I had briefly contemplated getting Starbucks and going to Monkey Joes. But I really needed it and I.WAS.MAD I couldn’t work out. I was probably short. That said, on my Scale of Bitch, I was about a 4-5… not the 8 or 9 I would have been a few years ago. But I was still ticked. I had an unpleasant conversation with one of the staff who probably thought he was doing the right thing, but it came across 100 wrong to me, everything about it. No way he could have known about my morning, but the lesson learned there is that if a mother is on the edge, don’t push her over. Bend the rules. Let it go.
So I left. Angrily. And complained. And I stewed over it for about 3 hours.
Last night I received one of the most pleasant emails I have ever received from a company I complained to [although to be honest, I think I've only complained to about 2 companies over email]. It was dead on with apologies, but also still underlined the policy. It didn’t make excuses, it didn’t disparage the employee… or me. It was just right on. And I received another apology today.
The net of it is that I caught someone on a day when they had probably been given direction and was fed up with people trying to bend the rules… and he caught me on a day when I needed a “no questions asked, just bend them” response. But prior to that, I had been thinking I would cancel my membership. I was pretty happy working out outside and was thinking that it would be easier just not to belong to a gym. Yesterday afternoon Owen and I were trying to figure out where I’d go if I joined somewhere else. But by last night, after reading the response, and again this morning, I can tell you now that I wouldn’t dream of canceling, I will probably be a customer for life.
So if this gets to that one guy, I am sorry there was such mis-communication between us. If it gets to Dave, you are doing your company right in building a really great brand and customer loyalty. And if it gets to Christian, thank you, I will take you up on that offer if for no other reason than it gives me NO EXCUSE to not get there 3X a week for the next month.
And if it gets to anyone on the North Shore looking for a gym, you are crazy not to join: http://www.latitudesportsclubs.com/