As anyone who studied the rivalry between McDonald's and Burger King will tell you, it's not the quality of the food that creates loyal customers: it's the experience. This is the tale of one customer, two restaurants and how managers can either taint or enhance customer loyalty.
They did a bad, bad thing
For the past several years my cousin Paulette has met her daughter Michelle and grandson Erik at their local mall. As part of their weekly routine they go to the Au Bon Pain for coffee.
Every single Friday. At least 150 times Paulette, Michelle and Erik have gone to the very same Au Bon Pain.
On one particular Friday, Paulette left her "bag" at the table. When she returned five minutes later, it was gone. She contacted the manager, mall security. The police were called.
Paulette canceled her credit cards and based on the advise of the police began the 'trash can search". As the police told her, purse snatchers often just take the money and dump the purse in the trash. Paulette went through every single trash can in the mall.
After she came up empty handed she decided to go back to Au Bon Pain --just in case. While she was there she went into the ladies room. As she washing her hands and getting ready to throw the paper towel into their trash can, she noticed something odd about the plastic bag lining the trash can. Sure enough, underneath the plastic bag were two Au Bon Pain bags and in those bags were Paulette's purse. Everything was there. The cards. The cash. Everything. Nothing--not the lipstick. not her palm pilot. Not even a pen was missing.
Given the circumstances Paulette came to the conclusion that it was probably someone working at Au Bon Pain who had stashed the purse underneath the trash bags until they got off work.
When she shared her theory with the manager, his response was,
"It couldn't possibly be anyone who works here."
Huh? Paulette was astounded. She called corporate headquarters. They listened to the situation, said they would check into it. They never called her back.Paulette vowed to never go to an Au Bon Pain again.
She didn't for several months. But after awhile she missed her cup of jo and found herself once again going to the Au Bon Pain. Maybe that's what Au Bon Pain was counting on.
As far as their bottom line is concerned, they have their customer back.But sometimes you can't rely on the numbers. Paulette is no longer a loyal customer. She is a disgruntled one.A customer who is very willing to tell her story whenever she has the opportunity. If the mall had another place to get a good cup of coffee she would be there in a coffee bean minute.
They did a good good thing.
Paulette and Iwere having a late lunch at The Good Earth Restaurant in Edina, Minnesota. We ordered our food. We got our drinks. We chatted. We watched everyone around us getting served. Finally after 25 minutes or so we mentioned that we hadn't received our food.Another 10 minutes passed.
When our server returned , she said our food was on its way but because it had been so delayed, the restaurant was treating us to our lunch. Now, The Good Earth could have simply apologized. Orders get lost in restaurants all the time. They could have offered us a complimentary dessert or offered to pick up one of our meals. They didn't have to comp everything.
That's the point. Their act of "unexpected generous customer service" was so appreciated that my loyalty to The Good Earth has now reached a new level .
Will this mean I will go to The Good Earth more often? Absolutely. And that is a good good thing.
Image Credit: Flickr Image from La Familia Brophy
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