Service surprises: stories from our clients

You have received this e-mail because you are a friend of Creative Abandon. If you would prefer not to receive future issues, just click here. Thank you.

Welcome to everyone who is new to The Hero's Voice, our e-newsletter devoted to highlighting heroic stories in everyday business. These stories explore the concepts outlined in our strategic brand process, The Hero's Quest, which shows you how to become a hero to your members or customers.

In Issue 23 (click here to read it), we discussed how small, unexpected actions can make a big difference in building customer loyalty. We invited readers to share their stories, so here are a couple we received.

---------------------------

ProGrass Landscape Care & Design:

Here's a customer comment we received this Spring regarding one of our Portland area service representatives which seems to fall into the "small gestures make you a hero" category:

Submitted by customer Marian Aleckson:
"Today when Ken came to fertilize, he didn’t say a word but graciously moved all of the firewood the tree trimmers had stacked on the lawn out in the street at the curb. He could have fertilized around it but he used good judgment and elbow grease and moved it off the grass area. He continues to shine."

Ohio HealthCare FCU:

Our members regularly use our homebanking service. Many use the Quicken (personal financial software) download feature to manage their finances. However, we don’t offer the QuickBooks (small business financial software) download functionality yet. Inadvertently, our core data processor enabled the QuickBooks radio button to show up on our download window, but without the functionality being enabled.

A member called the Credit Union complaining that the QuickBooks did not work, and if we could not fix it they would take their business to a local bank. Our CEO contacted the member and learned they were managing their small business with QuickBooks but use our Credit Union for their personal checking and wanted to use the QuickBooks software to manage this checking account. The CEO assured the member we would be able to help him.

After researching the issue, the CEO was told that the credit union only purchased the Quicken download functionality and not the QuickBooks. He was told it would cost another $1,000 per year to enable QuickBooks and $1,000 to install the functionality.

Our CEO was faced with the dilemma of honoring his commitment to the member which would require a $2,000 investment in the QuickBooks functionality. He contacted the member, told him the full story, and offered to purchase a version of the Quicken software instead (total cost to the Credit Union $60.00). The next day the member was thrilled when he stopped at the Credit Union to pick up his version of Quicken Deluxe to manage his personal finances.

The Credit Union saved a substantial checking relationship (valued at much more than the $60 purchase of Quicken) and avoided the $2,000 unplanned investment in the QuickBooks download feature – a win-win situation for everyone involved!

---------------------------

As these stories show, solving your customers' problems — even the small ones — is a essential to building loyalty. While most of us cringe when we hear "there’s a problem," a problem is actually your best chance to be a hero. When faced with a problem, does your company rise to the occasion like Ohio HealthCare FCU?

We believe companies can be heroic, and we're grateful to work with companies like ProGrass and Ohio HealthCare who prove it can be done!

Lisa and the Creative Abandon team