How to turn a Customer into a Fan
by Ian Bowen
No it’s not a magic trick with smoke and mirrors, though come to think of it many will probably consider it so.
On the occasions when I have experienced the transition from simply being a customer to being a fan I have concluded that it is essentially down to the 3 P’s – Professional, Personal and Personable and more often than not it’s nothing especially major. It’s just little things that, as a customer, I have been pleasantly surprised at, delivered with the 3 P’s.
Take the time that I was buying my father a pair of slippers for Christmas from a leading partnership department store chain in the UK. I took them to the check out point and the member of staff took them from me and then disappeared. It turned out that she had noticed a small crease in the material and had gone to the section manager to confirm that she could offer me a small discount. The amount of the discount was modest but I was impressed and I’ve been a fan ever since.
In the whole of my career I have always had a passion for customer service excellence. The feeling you get when it’s clear that a customer has genuinely appreciated their dealings with you is as good a reward (for me) as the salary I was paid.
