DELIGHT YOUR CUSTOMERS
Something for
nothing?
By Aki Kalliatakis
How to bring back the spirit of generosity, caring, warmth
and even just basic courtesy
Once again, the guys at Fournos
Bakery have softened my heart.
This time, I went into one of their
bakeries and ordered my stuff.
The lady who served me (and I’m
embarrassed to say I didn’t recognise
her) asked me about my two sons while
getting my stuff together. Then, without
prompting, she threw in two gingerbread
men. Yes, my order may have been around
R800, but I was so delighted at being
remembered and getting something for
nothing – again.
February is the month of love (well,
according to most media and retailers) and
I think it’s a magic opportunity to find an
excuse to tell your customers how much
you love them. After all, it’s customers who
put food on the table and pay for your kids’
school fees, right? So it shouldn’t be too
difficult.
Why is it that we seem to find it so
challenging to show warmth and
caring for people other than those
closest to us? Love has never been
shown to be a limited resource, to be
used sparingly. On the contrary, the
more love we show towards others, the
more seems to bounce right back to us.
But that spirit of generosity, caring,
warmth, even just basic courtesy, seems to
have all but disappeared.
We recently surveyed just under 900
customers, two thirds of whom were
answering as consumers, and a third were
in a business-to-business context. Amongst
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SUPERMARKET & RETAILER, FEBRUARY 2015
other things, we asked them to discuss
what their needs were with respect to their
relationship with their suppliers, and in
order of importance the top five were:
■ Reliability – right first time,
consistency and quality
■ Responsiveness – respond to specific
needs, and show a sense of urgency
■ Competence – do the people I deal
with have the skills, knowledge and
experience to do the job?
■ Accessibility – availability when
customers need you
■ Courtesy – recognition, personal
attention, respect, empathy, warmth,
caring even love from people who deal
with customers – even when customers
don’t deserve it!
The other five were understanding the
customer, communication, safety and
security, integrity and freedom from worry,
and, of course, the tangibles.
But here was the big surprise: At the
end of the interview, once customers had
ranked all of the dimensions of service
quality that were desirable to them, we
asked them which of these was most
In the spirit of generosity, find an
excuse to let your customers know
how much you value them.
missing in business today, which was the
one factor that they wished would be
dramatically improved. A full 83% said
“courtesy!”
So it seems that companies are generally
not too bad at reliability, responsiveness,
competence and accessibility, but there
was a deep yearning for customers to feel
loved and wanted.
Republic. This time they asked people in a
particularly poor village what they would
like for Christmas. On Christmas day they
arrived, even bringing a snow machine to
the tropical island, and they distributed,
amongst others, a washing machine, a
crib, a motorbike engine, and even a horse!
On Boxing Day they also unveiled a new
playground for all of the kids in the village.
©1999 Ted Goff [email protected] http://www.tedgoff.com
“Our study concludes that this is the
percentage of our customers who
will buy from us without any effort
whatsoever on our part.”
Of course, some people don’t seem to
have a problem with this. Richard Branson
is one of my favourite examples, and there
are dozens of legendary stories that have
been told of his love for his employees, for
his customers, and for the needy people
in the world. In one recent example, he
personally read a story and tucked a couple
into bed, kissing both of them as he did
so. The reason? They had won an award to
stay in his new Chicago Virgin Hotel.
WestJet is an airline that also gets
it. (Watch their videos on YouTube. It’s
well worth it.) Two years ago, just before
Christmas, they arranged that every single
passenger of two flights would chat to
Santa Claus in the pre-boarding waiting
area, and talk about what they wanted for
Christmas. In the few hours that it took for
the flights to reach their destinations, staff
had arranged a gift for every single person,
ranging from socks and underwear to a
huge flat screen TV. As passengers waited
for their luggage these beautifully wrapped
gifts came out first. There were literally
people who cried when they saw this, and
the resulting goodwill led to publicity that
no money can buy. But how did they top
that the next year? Well, this time they
went to a different destination where
people were much poorer – the Dominican
There are two lessons I’d like to share
with you. First, if you allow people on your
team to think and act like the owners, you
may be surprised by how well they do. It
gives them a different view on the rules
and policies, and they think longer term
than just following rules like a robot. Of
course, it also gives them a sense of selfworth and importance.
Second, customers remember small
things because of the emotional value. In
all the examples I’ve shared, the cost was
very little. But they validate the type of
company that I want to deal with. I have
already personally told a number of people
about my experiences, and with you now it
is thousands of people.
By helping others to find happiness,
somehow we also find ours. And I think it
would be quite fun to tuck a few of my
customers into bed. With a gingerbread
man under their pillow.
Aki Kalliatakis is the managing partner of
The Leadership LaunchPad,
a company dedicated to
helping clients become
more customer driven.
He can be contacted at
(011) 640 3958, or via
the website at www.
DelightYourCustomers.
co.za
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SUPERMARKET & RETAILER, FEBRUARY 2015