My mom always said it’s easier to be happy than to be angry. When you’re upset, it certainly doesn’t feel that way. Happiness seems miles away, until you realize how much energy you’re spending being grumpy.
Similarly, it takes a lot of effort to penny-pinch and it’s pretty easy to be generous. The key is to find the stuff that doesn’t cost much more, but has a very positive effect.
- Noah spent today at a coffee shop. He witnessed enough “accidental” fancy drinks given away to realize it was instead a brilliant marketing plan.
- Seth has a pet peeve with small coins. When sales tax brings the price of something just above a dollar amount, we’re forced to dig into our pockets or get a heap of change back. His marketing advice: “Don’t worry about the nickel!”
- Jory received free donut holes while waiting in line at a restaurant. Later, she bought some ice cream, but was disappointed that there weren’t more sprinkles available.
- Sometimes I get some food from the deli at my local supermarket. There’s one lady who consistently gives a little bit extra. She spoons in the amount I request, weighs it, then adds another spoonful before closing the lid.
The truth is that it doesn’t cost these companies much more, nor does it take more effort. They are making much happier customers for a very small price.
My goal is to find a way to move these lessons to the web. Giving more should be even cheaper when all goods are virtual. How do we find the free fancy drinks, the nickels, the donuts, the sprinkles, and the extra scoop?
When you find one, implement it. Whatever it takes to do it will be made up in spades by how much people appreciate it.
Those little things are so damn memorable. I remember a guy giving me free things at a bar even though I hardly remember the night;)
Let’s ask the owners of the deli/grocery what they think of each employee messing with the profit margin. Grocery stores are famous for operating on a slim profit margin, and there’s no doubt the costs of items in the deli are measured as precisely as possible when determining the retail price. Employees, generally ignorant of the true cost of things, probably shouldn’t take matters into their own hands and start doling out extra servings whenever it strikes them as the thing to do.
People who work in delis and bars have a tendency to think it’s okay to “give a little extra,” rationalizing it as “good customer service.” They don’t think it’s the same as, say, the Nordstrom sales clerk *giving* you a wallet when you buy a suit, but it pretty much is.
Good customer service does not mean giving away stuff for free because you feel like it. Remember that everytime you give some other guy something for free, there may be a customer watching who thinks, “how come THAT guy got extra? Their arbitrary rules make me not want to come here.”
Good customer service is being pleasant and attentive, and that’s what keeps me coming back. Whenever someone gives me too much or extra, I can’t help thinking about what other directives they have received and dismissed as unimportant (to them).
I can’t imagine you would stop going to that deli if they gave you the usual amount and were pleasant about it. Does getting an extra spoonful really tip the scales?
And giving away free drinks at a bar opens a can of worms over potential liability laws (“your honor, I only bought one drink at that bar, they gave me the rest and that’s why I was so drunk I didn’t see that crowd of nuns.”)
I just don’t see the practice of employees deciding who gets extra free stuff as that good of a model in the long run.
I hope I didn’t rain on your parade, dude.
It looks like I should have left my Safeway example out of this.
My point was for business owners to plan for this generosity, not for employees to go willy nilly giving stuff away. As a customer, I’d much prefer to get the feeling that they aren’t counting every last cent of profit from me, even if they are.
Your point about the other guy in line definitely makes me think. And if everyone gets something for free, then it looks more like a rote practice passed down from management. That is what I’m advocating, of course, but I don’t want it to look that way.
I think savvy employers DO plan for generosity, but some of them call it “employee theft.”
Ha!
Just kidding, sort of.
I guess MY point is really that if you have a good customer service, you really don’t need to do things like give away fancy drinks or donut holes.
I like to think those drinks and donut giveaways are part of “I’m just going to throw it out anyway,” and I encourage the informality and common sense of such things. Because the side benefit far outweighs whatever emotion the owner might have about not getting every penny out of the product.
On a side note: when the children were little it didn’t take them very long to realize that if they were nice and polite and well-behaved in a restaurant, half the time they got some treat for free. That didn’t specifically teach me to return to those establishments, but it taught the kids you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
I guess it paid off for the retailers in good karma.