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tell the customer that they could pay
the existing balance when they re-
turned from vacation.
Another store owner hand delivered
presents to her customer on Christmas
Eve because the customer’s husband
was out of town until Christmas Day.
An employee of another client
called every husband in her social net-
work, hand selected and photographed
items on her iPhone, wrapped them
and personally delivered them.
Another client in the Christmas
tree business received 700 artificial
trees after Thanksgiving (about a
month too late). One of the owners
personally delivered trees at 10:30
P.M. on a Saturday night in December
because he had promised his custom-
ers they would get their trees as soon
as they arrived.
There was also an interesting sto y
involving a certified pedorthist who,
while on vacation, delivered a special
order to a diabetic customer who lived
in a different state.
One store actually refunded the
purchase price of a pair of shoes that
never actually was purchased at the
sto e simply because the customer
was so insistent that they did. Now
that really goes above and beyond.
Think of the good will created by this
gesture and the negative feelings
averted had it been handled different-
ly. The store had every right to decline
this refund. He would have won the
battle, yet still lost the war.
These are all great examples of
what many retailers do to exceed cus-
tomer expectations. Another simple
step that pays huge dividends is to
make sure the people we hire are truly
representative of the message we want
our customers to receive. The people
on the selling floor are the direct face
of your business. Always look for peo-
ple to hire who are friendly, outgoing,
gregarious, with warm personalities.
I walked into a nationally known
home store the other day, walked up
to a sales person who looked at me
like I was interrupting, didn’t smile and
made the smallest effort possible to
answer my question. I walked out emp-
ty handed. Do you think I will return
anytime soon? No, they don’t value my
business or me as a customer.
The good news is that brick-and-
mortar retailing still allows us to pro-
vide “high touch” service in a “high
tech” world. Use your next staff meet-
ing to share examples where your
company has previously exceeded cus-
tomer expectations and what more can
be done in the future.
Ritchie Sayner is VP of Business
Development at RMSA Retail Solutions.
Follow him on Facebook at
or email to
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