Going the extra mile

When in doubt, do what Rocky would do

I'm a regular reader of Paul Castain's Sales playbook, a blog which I highly recommend (just so long as you come right back here afterwards...) and I was really struck by a story from his post yesterday.

Running down a list of best practises to love your customers one point, if you'll forgive the plagiarising paragraph, noted a piece of brilliant customer service at Disneyland:

"We went to a dinner show one night and the waitress was visibly hustling from table to table. Somewhere in the mix, she forgot my son’s lemonade. When she returned to our table, my son very respectfully called it to her attention. She immediately apologized (doesn’t that have a way of immediately diffusing a situation?) and said “Wait until you see how we fix things when we make mistakes at Disney” What happened next blew my mind. She returned with an entire pitcher of lemonade (complete with a very cool straw and glow cubes). So let me see if I get this. What was once a mistake has now turned into a “Wow”?"

This is exactly why responding to customer wants and needs is so important. A criticism or a disappointment should not be taken as a negative. It should be a challenge, an obstacle to overcome which will ultimately make your product stronger. Whilst it can sometimes be difficult to take a lot of criticism, it is ultimately how you respond to the challenge that builds strong customer bonds.