OK, I admit that my bad mood had something to do with it. So you can take this with a grain of salt. But, my friends, there’s still an important lesson here.
The other day, I left the office to get something from my car. And wouldn’t you know it, I saw that I had a flat tire. Not that big a deal and I had actually been planning to take the car that day to my local tireshop anyway for an oil change and to have the tires checked and rotated. I mentioned to a coworker that I was going to call AAA and have them change the tire to my doughnut while I was working so that I could drive home and have the tire fixed near my house. My commute is nearly an hour and he suggested I just take the car to a certain local tireshop that he had used.
I have an electric pump in the car and I tried to pump the tire with just enough air to make it the mile or so to the shop. No luck. The tire was not holding the air at all. So I tried driving really slowly on the rims (yeah, I know that’s dumb). But it became clear after a few hundred feet that this wouldn’t work either.
So I changed the tire. It’s not hard work but I was annoyed at having to do it especially in clothing that was not suitable.
I finally finished and headed over to the tireshop. I pulled into the lot and it wasn’t exactly clear to me where to go. There were a bunch of garage bays and a small office. So I parked in front of a garage bay and planned to quickly go into the office and see where they wanted me to put the car.
A guy comes out of the garage and says to me “you can’t park here. You have to park in the lot.” Well I was pretty damn annoyed. I was annoyed in the first place at having a flat tire and doubly annoyed that they didn’t have signs telling me where to go and even more annoyed that they couldn’t deal with me leaving my car for two minutes in front of the garage – where it was convenient for me.
So I parked and headed into the office. I waited for a bit, Nobody welcomed me. Nobody told me how I could get the help I needed. Nothing.
So I left. As I was walking out, I heard “sir, can I help you” but it was too late. I decided I would rather drive an hour at 45 MPH on my doughnut than give these people my business.
And herein lies the lesson. The first words I heard from this company were “you can’t park here.” My very first interaction was negative. The guy could have come out and said “sir, thank you so much for coming here. We really appreciate your business and can’t wait to get started on your car so you can get back on the road. But would you mind moving your car just a few feet over there into the lot so that we can maintain access to the garage?” That would have caught me by surprise. It would have interrupted my grumpy bad mood with some outstanding niceness. It would have turned around my day and I would really have felt indebted to this business. I would have been glad to give them my money.
Instead, I will never patronize this business because they created a negative experience. Now you can tell me I’m being too much of a prima donna. OK. You are entitled to your opinion. But guess what? It’s my money. I choose to patronize businesses that make my life better. That go the extra mile to show they care. And there are many others out there like me. If you are the owner of that tireshop, do you really want the very first thing you say to your customers to be “you can’t park here”?
The owner of that business can spend money on a nice sign so that customers can find him. He can take out a nice ad in the local paper, advertise on Google and do whatever other marketing activities he thinks make sense. But it was all lost entirely on me because when it came to the most critical touchpoint of all – the actual service interaction – his employee was unhelpful and kind of rude.
You cannot afford this. You have got to ensure that every touchpoint – and especially the actual delivery of the benefits you offer the customer – is consistent with the message you’d like the customer to walk away with. BTW, I highly recommend that you check out Jeremy Epstein’s terrific writing on the issue of customer touchpoint management. Head over to his blog and search for touchpoint. He has a bunch of helpful and inspirational posts.
BTW, when I took my car to the tireshop near my house, they thanked me for my business and told me how much they appreciated it. Perfect!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I never understand this sort of behavior, even outside of a service environment. Why “go there” like this guy did when you pulled up? Did he really think you were parking there specifically to break some rule or to annoy him? I would have lost my temper, big time.
Related story… The other night in the Theater District I was walking down the street when a family in a mini van (clearly tourists and confused amidst the mayhem of all theaters getting out at once) was accosted by a police officer. The mini van was trying to navigate around a parked town car but in the process was snarling traffic. In a booming voice, the cop started screaming through the open window at the driver, “What exactly do you think you are doing?” and repeated this about four times. There was no effort to help the driver get back on track. There was no advice or direction. Instead, he stuck his fat, red-faced head into the window of the mini-van and proceeded to berate this guy in front of his wife and kids. And what’s the driver going to do, yell back and get arrested? Not sure how old the kids were, but if they were young (as 5 or 6) I’m sure this cop had them in tears. And what could I do. I was so tempted to tell that guy off, but not in the mood for a summons. Total abuse of power.
This cop is no different than the auto body worker in your blog. He is a customer service rep for NYC and he blew it. I’m sure the driver was rightfully fuming all night long and resenting every last minute he had to spend in our city. All I can say to him (and you, with regard the the garage worker), some guys are just plain jerks and in life, what comes around, goes around.
I totally agree. I seem to recall something about “to protect and serve.” The cop’s behavior was out of line. I can understand this behavior. It’s a stressful job. But staying cool under fire is a key responsibility. If you can’t hack it (and I’m not sure I could) then get a different job.
You know I agree and just wanted to say thank you for the shout out. Well done in furthering the revolution