Because a Blogger Went Ka-Choo!
You may remember the book “Because a Little Bug Went Ka-Choo!“. Well, it was my favorite as a kid and now I read it to my son Conner as much as possible; in fact I almost know it by heart. To make a long story short, the sneeze of a little bug causes a chain reaction for the community which involves worms, turtles, cows, farmers and a circus parade. Don’t worry, this DOES relate to us as innovators and early adopters. As a member of one of these two categories we are most likely in another group which Seth Godin frequently refers to as Sneezers, an individual that is likely to spread an idea. So, as a Sneezer, what do we have affects on?
About a week ago we had a birthday party for myself and my son (we actually have the same birthday). About an hour before the party I went to pick up my son’s first birthday cake, a giant head of Elmo. We were all excited, it really is for the adults because the kids have no clue. We chose to go with a local bakery in Knoxville called SugarBakers. They don’t actually have any bakers on staff so we communicated with one of their contractors. All we needed to do was pick the cake up by 4pm and pay SugarBakers. Well, I did my job (I was there at 2pm) and the contract baker did her job (she baked the cake and brought it to the store), but when I arrived the cake was missing. Turns out that somebody else showed up that morning expecting an Elmo cake from a different contract baker. I think you know what happened, yes my cake was given to them with Conner’s name on the cake. The only employee in the store that day was unable to help me saying, “That’s between you and the baker.” That kinda pissed me off because she was the one that gave my cake away. I left the store thinking I needed to make a cake shaped like Elmo (HA, not a chance). Before I left I wanted the employee to know that I would do my best to spread their business tactics throughout Knoxville doing what I know how to do, talk to people and give my honest opinion. I was ready to get home to start blogging and commenting wherever possible. I was ready to go. But things changed. The owner called my wife apologizing for everything saying he would do everything possible to get us a cake ASAP. He came through and the cake was free. So now I need to change my tone. SugarBakers came through. While the employee at the store did not handle the issues correctly the owner really cared and wanted us back. I will go back to SugarBakers for our next Birthday and you should too.
Now you didn’t get this far to just hear about our cake issues. The idea for this post came at our first Knoxville Tweetup lunch. We had a great turnout, 13 actually. With a table like that we expected gratuity to be added, however a 18% service charge AND a 18% gratuity was added. None of us really challenged it, but it brought up the comment of “Don’t piss of a Sneezer.” I believe this is really true, in fact one member of the lunch agreed saying, “They don’t really know who we are when we walk in.” Not that we should be treated like Food Critics, but businesses need to treat everyone like they can affect tomorrows customers. Only a small group of businesses think this way.
So, how have you affected a business good or bad because of service that was rendered to you? Do you know of others that spread their thoughts about a business so much that it was accepted by other communities and what affects did these actions have on events days, months or even years down the road?
Tags: Sneezers
Written by: tim
April 19th, 2008 at 9:18 am
So, how have you affected a business good or bad because of service that was rendered to you? Funny you asked.
Thursday afternoon, around 3:30, I stopped to get gas just off I-65 in Clermont, Kentucky. All the pumps were busy, so I pulled in behind the next car to wait my turn. I should mention there was no one pumping at the car in front of me, or in the vehicle. I assumed (you know about assume) they were in the building paying for the gasoline they had purchased or were about to purchase.
After about ten minutes and no one coming back to the vehicles, I thought maybe they were inside just shooting the breeze. As I entered the store, several individuals were in line and I asked who owned the “red truck.” Funny, no one owned the red truck. (At this point, two cars pulled up behind me and the drivers were now in the store.) Finally, the clerk behind the counter said that the gray car belonged to her and the red truck belonged to the other clerk. Answering my puzzled look, she continued that “they were blocking the pumps.” When I asked why, I was told that it was hard to manage all the pumps after dark. (Remember, it is 3:30 in the afternoon.)
With a very puzzled look from myself and those behind me, I looked at my watch and asked what time it got dark in this location. “Oh, about 8:30 or 9:00,” was the reply. Trying to keep my cool, I asked if I could prepay for my gas and pull to another pump. “No, you have to pull up to a pump and then come in the store.”
At that point I asked who owned this store. Guess what; they didn’t know. But they thought his first name was Jack. (Because I was familiar with the area, I knew who Jack was.) Knowing the next station was only about 10 miles down the road I told them, and the others waiting behind me, that I would just drive 10 more miles and get gas. As I left the store, six other individuals left with me and I saw all but one at the next station.
Also, I phoned “Jack” and talked with him about my experience. I got a call this morning that it certainly wouldn’t happen again at his stores, but it might at the next place these two clerks were hired.
I am sorry that my actions got the individuals fired, but I think there were other problems as well. However, when I go to a business to purchase goods or a service, it is the “customer service” that will bring me back again.
April 27th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Nice observations. There are few things a business can do to distinguish itself from another. A lot of businesses live or die by what others say about them. In the case of the SugarBaker’s incident, the owner knows he can’t afford to lose a customer every time his employee or team makes a mistake, especially doing business on a local level. Retaining a customer is an everyday concern for a business with expectation so high these days for consumers. This is mainly due to an increasingly savvy consumer that knows B.S. from the real deal.
I recently read a great article in Business Week about vigilante consumers that coincides well with your theme. Take a look at what Dell had to do in order to return to credibility. Michael Dell rolled in and started going down the list of complaints customers had and started checking them off. His business was largely created on speed and low cost e-tailing, but it wasn’t enough anymore.
A business like Newegg showed Best Buy who was boss by having delivery times that were so outrageously fast, that consumers drove them to become one of the top places to purchase electronics in an insanely short period of time.
I think it has to be built into the structure of a business to know when your credibility has been compromised due to a continued lack of customer service. In the case of Dell, they waited way too long with some of their counteractive measures. The effect it had wasn’t just on Dell, but on Microsoft and the other companies peddling bloatware that comes with a Dell (which they cut down on like everyone else). Knowing where customers expect the increased service and then acting upon it appropriately is the key.
The owner of SugarBakers understands that your individual experience may indeed cost him to lose more than one customer considering what bad word of mouth can do. His effort was appreciated and already has paid off. Anyone know where I can get a B-day cake?
May 7th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
You know what I find interesting is that a show like LOST is largely influenced by it’s viewers. I don’t watch the show, but the writers actually scan viewer sites to find interesting plot twists ect. This is just another sign that the consumer is increasingly in control and influential. I don’t know much about the show but I think that it’s a pretty good idea.
I think bands of consumers is where a lot of the influence comes from. It can be pretty nasty at times too. Anyone remember this incident? It was pretty nuts. I honestly think it would have gotten nastier if they wouldn’t have stopped editing the content. I’d honestly love to know how it influenced digg and how it handles events like this.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
The actual link to referenced site in above post.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/02/technology/digggetsmobbed.biz2/index.htm
May 7th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Here’s an update on the some changes since the uprising.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9083518
May 8th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Another example was when Family Guy was taken off the air, viewers got the show back on air through various means. They tried to do that with Arrested Development, but they couldn’t make it happen. Both where instances were consumers effected the product or business.