There is never a bad time to wow a customer with an unexpected gift. One of the best times is on delivery. Use your imagination and pretend my example is real and ask yourself if this were me as a customer what would I think?
Ready? Imagine a nice clean truck pulls up to your house to deliver your new mattress system. Two uniformed smiling delivery men put out a red carpet leading to your home. They put booties on their feet and ask you a few questions and ask where the bed will be delivered to and then they walk through carefully planning their every move. They explain in detail sequentially what is going to happen.
They take care to be very careful of your house and even offer to vacuum under your bed with a hand held vacuum that they brought with them. After everything is installed they give you some final tips on how to take care of your new sleep system.
Then they give you an opportunity to rate your experience at the store. They have a form for you to fill out and they are happy to wait while you fill it out. They also offer you to send it back if you are too busy to fill it out right then.
They leave a branded bag that includes branded pens and a paper note pad and two cake pops along with a few other items. They even delivered within a two hour window that they called you with a few hours prior to the delivery so you didn’t have to wait around all day.
Are you thinking this is crazy? No retail store in their right mind could ever do all that. Here is a news flash for you, this is what a Gardner’s Mattress & More customer experiences everyday! Maybe you own a truly great store and you do many of these things but not all.
I am going to challenge you to try your best to duplicate this delivery experience the best you can. Who knows? Maybe you can even add something to this to make it better? Maybe homemade brownies or cookies? I’m just spit balling.
Here is why delivery is so important – it is right here in this sacred space that all the promises made in your marketing and in your sales process are finally fulfilled. How your customer sees your store is largely determined by their delivery experience. Make sure it screams WE CARE!
Sending surprise gifts at special holidays or on your customer’s birthday are great ways to keep the relationship going. At least do cards with a little handwritten note in it. I’m not asking you to give all your profit away but I am suggesting that you reinvest in your relationship with your customer so they are glad to give you testimonials, referrals, a 5 star online review, and repeat business.