Shazzam"...Or..."Nega-zam?
I went to our local Walgreens to pick up some photos that I had ordered on-line. There was another Customer in front of me, and when the clerk, Jen, finished with that Customer, she turned her back to me to reach down and retrieve something from the bins behind her. When she looked back up to me, I told her my name. She surprised me when she said, “Isn’t this you?” I looked down at the counter and saw my packet of pictures. I have used Walgreens to process my orders several times, but it always seemed like there was a variety of sales clerks that waited on me. I was astonished that Jen knew my name. My response – “Shazzam!”
I stopped by to check on my Mom’s house. To my surprise, when I tried to open the garage door, the opener did not work. I unlocked the door to Mom’s house and discovered the reason for the problem – there was no electricity. The next day, I called ComEd to report the power outage. As expected, it took me quite some time to get through to a “live” person. She explained that there had been a power outage in the area, and asked me if I had flipped the breaker switch. I have been victim of several power outages in my life, and had never needed to keep flipping the breaker switch to see when the power came back on, and I told the woman this. She said that I would need to flip the breaker, so I drove 30 minutes back to my Mom’s house. You’ve probably guessed what I found – the lights were on! I didn’t need to flip the breaker, and had wasted an hour going back to Mom’s hous e to check this out. A “Nega-zam!”
Lynn had a birthday recently, and I went to Crimson Ridge to buy her a present. I like Crimson Ridge, because they always seem to have a unique selection of merchandise, and the staff is always friendly. After looking at several things, I settled on a necklace. One of the great things about Crimson Ridge is that they do a great job of wrapping gifts. Kip, the owner, asked me what the occasion was, then personally wrapped the necklace for me. When he was done wrapping the necklace, he wrote “flowers” on the back of a card and told me that if I would take the card downstairs, they would give me a dozen roses – free! Shazzam!
One of the things that I love about living back in Illinois (No – it’s not the winter weather!) is being able to subscribe to the Chicago Tribune. Until recently, the home delivery has been terrific. However – in the past 3 weeks, my “Trib” has not been delivered on 4 separate days. I let the first couple of times slide, but the third time I called their circulation phone number. I had to punch in about a half dozen numbers before my “transaction” was completed. What a waste of my time! To top things off, when my carrier delivered the newspaper that included her "Happy holidays - Please give me some money" holiday card, she threw the paper in a 2 foot deep pile of snow. I almost sank to my knees trying to get the paper. Another “Nega-zam!”
One final “Shazzam!” On my birthday, I got a birthday post card from Southwest Airlines. I’m a million miler on Delta, and have never received even a birthday e-mail. Southwest doesn’t fly to Atlanta (They will soon, as they bought AirTran), but they sure do fly from Milwaukee – my new favorite airport.
“Shazzam!” or “Nega-zam” - What is your Team is delivering? What are your Customers telling their friends about your service?
The Shazzam Challenge
Your Customers decide what to tell their friends every time they call or visit your business. What can your Team Members do to make sure that “Shazzam” is what they are saying?
Mark Mayberry is president of the Mayberry Group and author of Building the Dream Workforce.
www.markmayberry.com
Copyright 2010, author retains ownership. All Rights Reserved.
