“You’ll never stay in business if you can’t keep your customers happy and coming back.”
Those words, uttered to me by Michael Schurman, a professor at Durham College, nearly 20 years ago, seemed silly to me as a teenager. I was always of the opinion that if you offered a product or service that someone wants or needs, they’ll come back no matter what.
After three years of college, and a few more years of life experience, I realized that professor was right.
When people are spending their hard-earned money, they want both value and service; some are willing to pay more for better service.
A few years after college, my then girlfriend (now wife) and I accepted a job in the Canadian arctic – Baker Lake, Nunavut to be exact – working at the Northern store (think Wal-Mart but smaller and in really cold locations). We worked for a gentleman by the name of Allan Hart, who in two years of working for him taught me more about customer service and business than I probably learned in three years of college.
In Baker Lake, the Northern store was far and away the number one retail store in town. There was also a Co-Op store and a convenience store, both of which did a fraction of the business the Northern did.
And customer service was the main reason.
Mr. Hart always told us to make sure that we had a clean store, stocked shelves, always deal with the people in front of you before answering the phone – “They invented answering machines for a reason!” – and do whatever you can to make the shopping experience easier for the customer.
By giving customers a clean store with the products they want in stock, and treating those customers as human beings – many ended up being friends – we accomplished that, even though our prices may have been a bit higher than the competition. The store had record years for sales, and staff retention was high.
Things were good.
When Mr. Hart retired, it marked a change in the community as a new store manager was brought in. This person, who came from a community with no competition, tried many new things – things that worked in their old community, because where else would people go? – that ended up hurting the bottom line of the store.
Things were not good.
It wasn’t long before that manager was shipped out. By that time we had left the company, partly due to that manager, and had moved back to Ontario.
Over the years, I’ve done my best to carry the lessons taught to me by Mr. Hart, not only in my professional life but as a customer myself.
Over the weekend, I had experiences at two businesses that both left an impression on me.
At Business No. 1, my wife and I had taken the kids there to enjoy the recreational activities offered by the business. We paid our money and the kids enjoyed the activity, so much so that we paid for another experience. As the kids were finishing up, the proprietor came up to us and said we were not performing the activity properly. They then stood there and awkwardly watched as the kids finished.
My mind was racing at this point – those who know me will know I took three years of college for this particular activity, finished the top of my class, and am a very good performer of said activity. Instead of giving the proprietor a piece of mind, I kept my mouth shut and we left the facility.
We had been there two weekends in a row and enjoyed ourselves, but because the proprietor struggled with the fact that kids were enjoying what they were doing (respectfully, I might add) we have vowed to stop frequenting this business.
To play on the words of LeBron James when he left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat years ago, “I’m taking my talents elsewhere.”
Fast forward about a half-hour later, we decided to grab a bite to eat at a local restaurant. It was busy at Business No. 2 when we got there, and we waited patiently to get served. The person behind the counter was apologetic about the wait, then took our order.
While putting the order into the point-of-sale system, the person behind the counter asked if we had any coupons.
“No,” I replied. “We left them at home.”
“No problem,” they said.
The employee proceeded to grab a set of coupons from behind the counter, scan in the applicable ones – saving us more than $10 in the process – and then offered to give us another set.
“Feel free to take them,” they said. “You can use them multiple times.”
I declined, explaining we just forgot to bring them but thanked them for the great service.
A few minutes later, our food was ready. It all tasted great.
“Talk about polar opposites in terms of customer service,” commented my wife, referencing our earlier experience.
That experience at the restaurant left me wanting to go back and support the business again. They treated us like decent people, made our experience easier and more affordable, and encouraged us to come back.
Mr. Schurman was right, and Mr. Hart would have been proud.
***
Mike Wilson is the editor of Midwestern Newspapers. For comments and feedback, email mwilson@midwesternnewspapers.com.
