Why “Above and Beyond” Should Be Your Standard
Our company spends a lot of time in coffee shops. This is mostly because we don’t have an office, and also because we aren’t as productive when we fall asleep on our keyboards.
Fortunately, many coffee shops provide for our needs with an office-like setting featuring comfy seats, wi-fi and, thankfully, the almighty slaughterer of sleep – Caffeine. (Yes…capital “C.”)
Something I’ve noticed as we’ve traveled around Sioux Falls – in order to avoid wearing out our welcome at any particular place - is the fact that some coffee shops go above and beyond the call of duty for visiting customers.
And some of them don’t.
That’s the problem. If we spend a day at Coffea or Queen City Bakery in Sioux Falls, the employees go out of their way to check in with us as the day progresses. Offering to get us new items, bringing water refills and generally just making it a point to see how they can help us.
But yesterday, we went to a place (we’ll call it Genericafe) where, after we purchased our drinks, we were completely ignored for almost 4 straight hours.
Here’s the thing: they weren’t wrong. In normal life, the experience we got at Genericafe is the expected experience. Yet, after the treatment we’ve received at the hands of zealous Coffea or QCB employees, the expected experience at Genericafe becomes, in essence, a letdown.
Now…as a marketer, PR person or online media strategist, which experience do you provide? Do you go above and beyond what the typical client expects and work hard to keep them satisfied (at all times), or do you simply do enough to cover your bases and move on to whatever other projects you have on your plate?
If it’s the latter, you may want to rethink your approach. Because once your client (the one you’re giving the “typical” agency experience to) comes across that new agency whose effort takes things to a whole ‘nother level…it might be hard to win them back.
It’s where Genericafe loses. It’s where you’ll lose too.
Don’t be Genericafe.
Let us know if you’ve had any similar experiences (or if we’re just talkin’ crazy talk) by sharing your thoughts in the Comments section below, dropping us a tweet on Twitter at @deepbench, or by visiting our Facebook fan page at facebook.com/deepbench.
Photo by Mykl Roventine