Podcast Description
“Just WOW 😮 it” In this podcast, I will describe two amazing experiences that I recently had and will explain why I consider them to be key to make any business succeed.
One of these experiences happened when I was purchasing groceries at Wholefoods Market and the second one while I was staying at the W Hotel in Montreal.
Podcast File
The 2018 Customer Experience – “Just WOW It”
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Podcast Transcription
Okay. So, I want to tell you guys about two different experiences that I had in the last week that were mind-blowing when it comes to the way that you’re supposed to handle a potential customer or somebody that has trusted you enough to open up their wallets and give you their money in this modern 2018 world.
I went to Whole Foods Supermarket the other day. If you guys are living on planet earth you’ve probably heard that Whole Foods Market was bought out by Amazon almost two years ago already, I believe, about a year and a half ago or so, at least it feels like it, they have been implementing a lot of things. It was such a really great company but Amazon is built on customer service. In the last year, they’ve been going aggressively into implementing and connecting the Amazon world with Whole Foods Market and they’re doing an incredible job.
Yesterday, I was in Whole Foods Market. I had just gotten from a trip and I was really tired and exhausted and I have decided to drop by and get myself some stuff. I purchased a lot of stuff – all healthy stuff, expensive. I mean, you lose your shirt when you go to Whole Foods Market and that’s for sure. It’s not a cheap place. And then I forgot to pay for a coffee and I had already paid for the whole thing. And I was like, “You know what? Just ring me up for a coffee. I mean, I’m going to go and get it in the back.” And, the lady that was there saw that I have spent about $175 on the Whole Foods Market purchase and she said something really fast to the cashier which caught me by surprise because I didn’t understand at first what she said. She said, “No, no, no. Just wow it.” And I was like, “What did you just say?” And she said it again and the other cashier looked at her and she was like, “Yeah”. And then she was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, just wow it.” And what I did was that I looked at her and she was the one bagging the actual groceries. So, what I did was I actually looked at her and I said, “Can you explain to me what you have just said to me?” And she said, “Just wow it.” And I’m like, “Wow! So, you actually have a policy in place in which you have an authorization to wow the customers and you just call it, “Just wow it”, that’s what you call it.” And she was like, “Yeah, we do this once in a while just making sure the customers are going to weigh their experience and just being here in Whole Foods Market letting them know that we value their opinion and value them being here and taking some time to be with us.”
It was so mind-blowing because I’ve never heard this before and I don’t know how long they have been doing this. But, it felt like this is a company that knows how to handle customer service in 2018 world. Companies that do that understand that people have choices and they are not entitled, nobody has an obligation to do business with them. So, what it gives an individual is the perspective that they are important, that them being there is something that they appreciate and that’s what they strive for and work for every single day.
A similar thing has happened. I just came back from Canada. It’s funny because I had to experience this back to back on the same thing when I never had experience of something like this before with those particular terms. I went to the Hotel W in Montréal in Canada. What happened was it was my first experience in that hotel and they gave me a little card and that card had options and it was about getting free breakfast. They assigned me a total of 3 breakfasts – my son’s, I take him with me on many trips, myself and my video guy. So, that was great! And then at the bottom, you had to check off the different options to let the people in the restaurant know why you’re giving them free breakfast. One of the options was, “Oops”. That’s all it said. It’s an accident, there was a miscoordination or whatever it is because you’re trying to make up the damage on something that had happened. And, another one was “Wow”. Just that. W-O-W. That was the one that was checked off. Makes sense. My first experience in this particular hotel. And, they want to make sure that I was so blown away which I was. I was so blown away that I will come back. And not only that, I will recommend. Because now, what happens? Some of you guys are watching this video, eventually it’s going to be seen by thousands of people, it stays in social media forever, even when this body passes and I’m dead, this video is still going to be out there talking about the WOW experience at the W Restaurant. It’s something that you don’t even realize sometimes or you actually take for granted the fact that any video that you put out there stays there forever. If somebody goes into social media and complains about you, that’s it, it’s going to stay there forever and ever and ever. Maybe one day it goes viral but down the line, it’s going to be seen by hundreds of thousands of people and now, millions of people because grandchildren and great-grandchildren, it’s going to be there forever, right? Because that’s what it is on Facebook and Instagram, all these platforms on YouTube, they store these information endlessly to the end of the universe, right?
So, this thing is really, really powerful and people sometimes think about, “Hey, but I’m going to lose money if I do that; I need to be profitable. ROI, instant ROI.” You don’t understand that’s not the way you build a business. That is not how you really plant your roots in the world. I’ve been operating like this forever because ever since I’ve got into the online world, I had a bed sheet business and I was selling a lot on Amazon. We’re doing $600,000 in sales a month. The company was already sold last year. But, I had this viewpoint of wowing customers I just had not named it like that.
When a customer complained, they’re going to write a review that they didn’t like something. We gave them a refund and then we went far beyond that – we gave them extra product – and we just did everything that we could to wow customers. Guys, this works really well. So, my recommendation to you guys is: always look to wow your customers. If you have them in front of you, if they are trusting you, if they are giving you their money, if they’ve opened up their wallets, if they’ve decided to go with you, no matter if you are an accountant, a real estate agent, if you’re a broker, if you sell online products, if you have a brick and mortar store, no matter what you are, realize that your customers are your bloodline. If you lose them, if you feel that you deserve their business is because your product is good, you are not going to grow your business and down the line, you are going to die.
Whenever I have a customer, I want to make sure that they feel like they are the most important thing in the universe for me. I never told them that I’m too busy for them. I never told them that I cannot pay attention to. You know what? I’m actually usually too busy for them but I don’t tell them that. But, what I do is I tell them, “Hey, my schedule is a little bit crazy right now. I’m going to put you on the line with my executive director and he’s going to take care of you. Don’t worry about it.” Just always, always make them feel like they are basically the only ones in your lives. When you have that treatment across the board, no matter what your business is, no matter what your products are, no matter what you’re selling, you win the game in the long run. That’s just the way it is. So, what I want you to do is to just wow it. Guys, I was wowed with that. I want to keep on going and spending my checks in Whole Foods Market even though I can get things cheaper in public. Supermarkets in Florida here does not work on wowing me. Whole Foods Market owned by Amazon is consistently working on wowing me nonstop. And, if I am wowed, you got me for life no matter if you’re more expensive. So, keep on going and keep on looking for ways to wow your customers. Talk to you soon.
