Total Customer Experience – From a Great Gatherings Visit
Total Customer Experience – From a Great Gatherings Visit
In this installment of my Total Customer Experience blog, I feel compelled to write about the fantastic experience that Nancy and I have received from Great Gatherings in Annapolis..
Great Gatherings is a store at the Annapolis Town Center that offers various specialty home furnishings, such as game room, patio, bar room, etc. We are in the process of building a house, and have visited a few times in the past.
The first time was in December 2012 to order our rec room furniture. On this visit, we dealt with Keith and he was extremely helpful in helping us make our decisions and took the time to get to know our interests and objectives when helping us decide on what pieces would work best. So, the feeling was that he was getting to know us and not just selling us furniture. Then after we left, he has made monthly calls to check on the progress of the house so he could make sure the delivery date of the furniture would be right.
The second time was when we went back in in August. We were pleasantly surprised that somehow, Keith remembered our names when we walked the door and immediately asked us how the house was coming along. We were kind of thrown back a little, because it has been 8 months since we last seen him. He again took the time to get an update on the progress of our home and to get to know why we were visiting the store that day, which was to look at patio furniture. We proceeded to pick out a set and received the same great service that we did the first time we dealt with him.
Now I am getting to the reason I felt compelled to write this blog. Last week, Nancy and I were in Annapolis for a meeting and decided to just pop into the store to look at bar stools for our kitchen island. When we walked in, we noticed Keith was not in the store so when Brian came up to ask how we were doing and if he could help, we advised him that we were in the store to look at bar stools and I mentioned that we have dealt with Keith in the past. He walked us over to where the bar stools are kept and kindly said that if we had any questions, he would be over behind the nearby counter.
It was what happened next that really blew our minds a bit. Brian comes back a few minutes later and said, “Mr. and Mrs. Nicklow, how is the house project coming along?” Nancy and I looked at each other for a moment and said it was coming along fine and the move in date was pushed back a couple of months.
At this point we were thinking that we never gave him our names and we have never met Brian before, so how did he know who we were? Then I realized that I was wearing a jacket I received from Greenway Bowling center that had my name embroidered on the front. So what Brian did, was once we told him that we had dealt with Keith in the past, he got my name from my jacket and went behind the counter to look up our history on their system so he could get to know us and better serve us.
Brian was extremely helpful in helping us make our bar stool selections and verified that we would want the stools delivered with the game room furniture and updated their system to reflect the new estimated move in date.
Now this is the kind of service that makes us want to go back. Over the past few visits, we have gotten to know what Great Gatherings product offerings consist of and because of the way they made us feel, if we need anything that they offer, we are compelled to go back and get it from them.
The way the staff at Great Gatherings made us feel towards their store is the way that we should all strive to make our customers feel about our business. So ask yourself this, when someone thinks of a product or service that you provide, do they think of you first? If the answer is “no” or “I don’t know”, then I think you have some work to do in order to get that answer to be “yes”.
In today’s business world, competition is as strong as ever and we need to be constantly thinking of ways to make our businesses distinct and stand out from the crowd. We may not have total control over the pricing of our products, but one thing that we do have total control over is the way we make our clients and prospective clients feel when they are dealing with us. Strive to make every interaction a great one and it will make a difference and make them want to be your client.
Huff Insurance is a full service Independent Insurance Agent We have been dedicated to Protecting Lifestyles™ since 1960. We offer a full array of Personal Insurance, Commercial Insurance and Life Insurance & Health Insurance products. Call us at 410-647-111
