the good customers...

i've been able to get a bit more personal time for myself now that we're in "the arctic days of retail" as my friend brian likes to put it. what this means is that no one in their right mind goes to the mall in january. no one. we've broke the record for worst day ever in terms of sales last week and then broke it again this week. there is hope though.

1. two ladies walked in the store towards the end of the evening one of which was practically dragging the other one in to get a couple of apples to take to the movie. our name is getting out there and people are starting to come in specifically for our products. we're becoming more of a planned purchase as opposed to an impulse item. this is good...i think.
2. we unintentionally screwed a customer today and word got back to me that she had complained and was upset (i wasn't at the store when it happened). this woman works in the mall and i know where she works so i asked one of my employees to go track her down and find out how long she was going to be there today. my employee phones me stating that she will be leaving at 5 so i jump in the car and drive up to speak with. i personally apologize for the mistake and we have a short 5 or 10 minute conversation about customer service in general and she gives me the compliment of the week by saying "it's things like this that make me quit going to the other guys for stuff and coming down to give my business to you instead. you guys just have better customer service." if doing the right thing is the only ingredient in good customer service, then why does it seem that so many organizations have a hard time with this?

my employees will probably hate me for the next week as i'm now on a more customer-centric kick than normal after that conversation and have already enthusiastically spoken with two employees about mistakes with customers. but those issues are for a future post.