It's the Little Things That Make the Biggest Difference

I had bought a suit at a well known New York department store a few weeks ago. My sales rep promised to notify me when it was ready for pickup after alterations had been made.  “No more than two weeks,” he said.

Four weeks later, I had not heard back, so I placed a call and was informed it was ready. My rep was on vacation, so the person I was speaking with promised she would notify the alteration department, and that I should come to the sixth floor to pick it up.

I went straight after work, and showed up as instructed. The first salesperson I spoke to sent me to the seventh floor, because that’s where my suit designer was located. “No big deal,” I thought, so I promptly took the escalator one flight up.

The rep on this floor asked for my name, id, etc. and then returned to tell me that the suit was not there. He must have detected my confusion, and rather than tell me to call tomorrow, or wait for my original rep to return from his vacation, he investigated! Ten minutes later, he found it, indeed on the sixth floor!

At this point he could easily have told me where to go, but opted to escort me personally to the location in question, maintaining a cheerful and friendly demeanor the whole time. He got the suit, found me a changing room, waited patiently for me to come out, and then reviewed the way the suit looked. We both agreed it was a great fit, and he took the suit I came into the store wearing, packed it in a garment bag, and escorted me to the elevators.

The interesting thing for me was that he had no financial incentive to take the time out of his busy schedule to help me, especially since I wasn’t even there to buy something new. I was so impressed that I asked for his and his supervisor’s contact information and sent an email describing how satisfied I was. 

That relatively small service created a big positive impact and preserved a customer’s loyalty. 

Sometimes you learn a great lesson from the simplest of events!