Give people a reason to talk you UP

A tiny incident at a local Pizza shop turned a FROWN into a SMILE (and some positive TALK too!)

It’s the little things in life that get people excited (and/or angry). This past week a very small and trivial thing happened, but under the surface, it had much larger consequences.

Here’s the scenario:
I go to a local pizza shop. They have this little promotion that if you buy ten LUNCH Specials, you get your 11th lunch for free (probably a cost/savings of $5). Nice idea, not a make or break thing either way, but it does get me going back and punching the little card they give you.

I go there last night for a “late lunch” (it’s about 6 pm). Kidding, I ask the young server behind the counter what’s the specials today. She seriously responds “we don’t have any“. I kiddingly respond “well make something up and even if it isn’t a special tell me that it is, and I’ll probably get excited“. She shrugs it off.

Next I say “well since there are no specials, would you mind punching my card, for credit for lunch, even though we really know it’s past the 3:00 lunch (its 3 o’clock somewhere)?” She goes  “I can’t do that“. I said politely “seriously, is it that big a deal to stamp my card the 4th time on my way to 10 before I get a free 2 slices and a  soda”? She goes  “I can’t but my manager is behind me“. I then suggest “can you ask him, he’ll probably say it’s ok”? She wouldn’t. So then I ask her his name, (Tony) and then, I ask him myself if it’s ok for her to stamp my 11 for 10 lunch card, recognizing “I’m a little late”. He says no problem. Didn’t cost anything, and made a customer happy.

The point here is, it’s little simple things like this that don’t cost a dime that can make someone happy… and talking you/your company UP. On the contrary, it could have gone the other way with me telling my family how silly it was they wouldn’t stamp a simple card, and thus talking them DOWN.

Message:
Empower your people to make decisions. Make the customer happy (within reason of course). Think outside the box a little. Imagine how excited I might have gotten if he double stamped it? Or threw on another ? slice during my seventh visit. There are so, so many little things we can do as people/ businesses, to make someone’s day. And many of them don’t cost us  a tenth of the BENEFIT that would be received by us TALKING the company UP.

A few silly ideas:
Your banker hands out a $1 lottery ticket to every depositor in the month of October. Your local SUBWAY shop that you visit twice a week gives you a free soda thanking you for all your business. Your hair salon gives you a free nail file and clippers at your next appointment.  The convenience store where you get gas, gives you a snickers bar or pack of gum for being a regular.

Give people a reason to be TALKING YOU UP. AVOID giving reasons to talk your company DOWN.

A bit of attention and appreciation can go a long way. And yes, I told my wife about how cool the manager of the pizza shop was!