An Oregon schoolteacher went to Nordstrom’s department store to buy a $1 booklet on how to tie scarves. A store employee told the teacher that, unfortunately, the store was sold out of the item. Four week later, the teacher checked her mail and to her surprise, found two of the booklets, at no charge. That gesture made her a faithful Nordstrom customer, even though the store didn’t have what she wanted the first time around.
But that’s not the whole story. There is no Nordstrom department store in the teacher’s hometown. She drives 160 miles round trip to shop at a store that took the time and effort to compensate her because they were out of a simple, inexpensive booklet.
You might not always be able to give customers or co-workers exactly what they want. But the way you go above and beyond to make up for an oversight, mistake, or product shortage can build a greater sense of loyalty and satisfaction than if you merely meet the initial request.
What will customers and clients remember about you when you are not able to meet a request? The mere fact that you couldn’t provide what they wanted? Or, the creative, service-minded way you responded to the situation and turned a negative into a positive?
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. – Galatians 6:9
Tags: clients, galatians, god, harvest, negative, reap, request, respond, workplace
