Free Advertising

I remember working in my father’s card and gift shop in Waukegan, Illinois as I was growing up. My father was very much attuned to customer service. He new all of his customers by name, he would open his store early or stay late if it meant making a customer happy. The lessons I learned from my dad about business and customer service have stuck with me my whole life. They have laid the foundation and been the bedrock for the way I conduct business. So, what does my father and customer service have to do with free advertising? Before I answer that question, I want to share with you three extraordinary customer service experience’s I have had recently.

1) I was in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago to meet with our radio station’s rep firm and clients. I go there four or five times a year and typically stay one or two nights. I always stay at the Courtyard by Marriott in Century City. It is a convenient location for me; the rates are good, free internet, nice, clean, modern contemporary rooms, great chocolate chip cookies on the bed at night, and if I’m lucky, every once in a while I get upgraded to a suite because of my “Marriott Rewards” status.

When I pulled my rental car into the hotel to check in, I was greeted by Ray. As he opened my door he looked at me and said, “Welcome back Mr. Mallace”. I looked at him with amazement and asked myself, how did he remember me? He went on to help me with my luggage, and then proceeded to park my car for me.

The next morning, I stepped out of the elevator grabbed a cup of tea. By the time I made it out the front door to give the valet my ticket, my car was already there. Wow! Through out my two days at the Courtyard, the staff was helpful and friendly, my car was always pulled up for me without asking and I was always enthusiastically greeted by name every time I returned. When I checked out, Ray wished me safe travels and asked when I was going to return. GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!

2) This past weekend I attended a conference at the Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale. Once again, I was enthusiastically greeted by the valet. He welcomed me to the Westin and asked if I was checking in or if I was just there for the day. I explained that I was there for the conference. With that, he told me exactly what room it was in and gave me directions on how to get there.

After I walked into the hotel and made the right and left turns like I was supposed to, I was at fork in the middle of the hallway. Should I go to the left, right, down the stairs or take the elevator. I was studying the plaque on the wall. The one with all the arrows, trying to figure out what my next move would be. Then a gentleman in a suit with a Westin name badge stepped out of the elevator and asked me if he could help me. I told him what room I was looking for and that I was confused on which way to go. He said, “Please step in the elevator and allow me to take you to the conference room”. I followed him and was there in a second.

That evening, Fran and I attended a dinner at the conference. Not only was the food outstanding but the service was extraordinary. As we left the dinner, a member of the hotel staff was stationed at the door, asked how everything was and thanked us for being there. You could tell that it was heart felt and sincere. GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!

3) Finally, yesterday I was dropping a friend off at the airport and we had some time to kill. So we went shopping where the boys go, Fry’s electronics (Fran and the girls won’t got there with me). I was looking for camera supplies and my friend was looking for a Nintendo Wii.

Fry’s Electronics for those of you have not experienced it, is a warehouse store like Costco that has everything you could imagine in regards to electronics, appliances, computers etc. It is so big; they even have their own café inside.

The first thing that struck me when we entered the store was that we were greeted by a professional young man wearing a pair of dress slacks, white shirt and tie. For that matter all of the associates were dressed like that as well. We asked the gentleman for directions to the appropriate departments, he in turn asked another associate to escort us to the Wii department and then on to the camera department.

In each case when we were in the individual departments the associates did not just point us in the right direction, they actually escorted us to the racks and displays to show us exactly what we were looking for. Who would expect that from a big warehouse discount store? Once again, GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!

So what does all this have to do with free advertising? It’s actually quite simple. We would all agree that word of mouth is the most effective form of advertising. Then it stands to reason that extraordinary customer service breeds loyal and happy customers. Customers like me and you, who will become evangelists for their businesses and spread the gospel. I’ve repeated these stories many times over the past few days and weeks. That’s free advertising for the Courtyard, Westin and Fry’s Electronics. I can’t help but think that in some small way this will have a positive impact on their business.

Every day we here how bad the economy is. We know this has a direct impact on our clients and their ability to invest in advertising and market themselves. It is simple and inexpensive to make sure that all of our associates provide extraordinary service to our customers, making them evangelists for our businesses and giving us all FREE ADVERTISING?

On the flip side, bad customer service might provide an even larger amount of publicity and free advertising. That topic is for a future post.