Zadra Creative Blog

Thumbprints in the Jelly Donuts

I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.

Donut with jam and fruits

And now a special message for all you guerilla marketers out there. You may not have the time or budget to launch an in-depth customer satisfaction survey, but down deep you already know what bugs your customers—so start there.

Frontline employees at Lobridge Family Deli walked in their customer’s shoes for a week and asked themselves, “What irritates me about our deli?”

By week’s end, they had identified and begun eliminating 41 annoying items, including brick-hard butter pats; slow lines in the morning; fruit flies in the dessert section; and thumb impressions on the jelly donuts. Their slogan became: “Eliminate life’s little irritations.”

If you think this advice applies only to smaller companies, check out this sidebar from the business section of USA Today: John Barrier, 59, parked at Old National Bank one day and went in to cash a $100 check from his daughter. When he asked to have his parking ticket validated, the teller told him, “Sorry, Mr. Barrier, our machine won’t validate your ticket; you have to make a deposit to qualify for the parking credit.”

John smiled and thanked the teller. But a few days later he delivered a written complaint to ONB, accompanied by withdrawing $1-million from his $2-million account. Why? Because his life was already too full of little irritations. As the movie character in one of my all-time favorite films, “Network”, put it: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

As for Old National Bank, they’ve since been acquired.

Remember:
• Service isn’t a big thing; it’s a million little things.
• Most customers won’t tell you what’s bugging them, they’ll just walk away.
• Seek out and eliminate life’s petty irritations on your customer’s behalf.

One thought on “Thumbprints in the Jelly Donuts

  1. Walk in Your Customers Shoes…..
    Hell I walk in everyone else’s shoes but I must have a funny foot size because not too many walk in mine.
    Maybe that’s why Australians wear a lot of thongs … they all look the same.
    And your bank story hurts. I thought Australia had the franchise on idiots on the top floor making rules for employees to behave like robots.
    What’s happened to employ the right people and just let them be. The result would be better.
    Love your posts.
    Your invisible friend.
    Michael

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