Keep your shitty swag bag
A lesson in listening to your customer
The Lit Salon is happening again! Following the success of the first Lit Salon in January, we are going bigger for Volume 2. This time, this author meet n greet event is being held upstairs at Bitter Sisters brewing Co. It’s free for the public and will be held on October 4th from 10-4. The form is open for author applications.
Good morning friend,
I was sitting in the mechanic’s shop last week, waiting for work to be done on my car, when four men walked in. Instantly, the air in the tiny reception area of the shop became thick with tension. Four men, all over six feet, in their business casual attire, descending all at once was intimidating. Cloying. Overbearing.
In the span of three seconds, I went from fearful to intrigued to worried. Were they here to shut down the shop over shady business practices? Would I be able to get my car? Was the owner about to get arrested?
None of these things happened.
What transpired was the owner, Kyle, coming out of his office to talk to these guys with a 2-foot thick, 4-foot high counter separating them. Kyle is about my height, 5-foot-3 or so. I don’t blame him for not coming to the other side.
For the next 30 minutes, I pretended to read while I eavesdropped. One spoke while the others took up space, spread out like menacing chess pieces. These men were from a Quebecois tire distributor, and they had come into Calgary to find out why they lost one of their biggest accounts in the city.
Kyle let them know, sparing no details, exactly why he no longer did business with this company. A merger had happened, and Kyle patiently waited to hear from the new rep about what this would mean for his business. No one reached out. For two years.
“And you guys are so slow answering emails,” Kyle said. “I had a customer with a faulty tire and it took 3 weeks for someone to respond.”
As Kyle continued, his voice got louder and stronger. “Your delivery time is terrible. Before the merger, I could call and get tires the same day. Now it takes a week or more. You need to understand how I work my business. When the car is up on the hoist and we need tires, we need them in hours, not days. It used to be like that. You guys need to do better.”
For the next twenty minutes, Kyle let them know all the ways they messed up and all the ways their competitor picked up the slack.
One of the other men stepped in. “This is exactly the kind of thing we need to hear. We want to do better. What can we do?”
“That’s not for me to tell you. I just told you what worked before. Find out who in your company did things right.”
Another man spoke up. “We’d like to send you a package. To show our gratitude.”
“No thanks,” Kyle said, “I don’t need any more crap with a logo on it. Keep your t-shirt.”
Uncomfortable laughter. Some vague platitudes. A less-than-heartfelt thank you to Kyle for sharing the challenges he was facing.
They left and Kyle looked at me. “Sorry you had to witness that,” he said.
“It was entertaining,” I said, smiling. “That was a bit heavy-handed, no? Four guys? Four guys to find out how they messed up?”
“Yeah. Four guys to tell me they’ll send me a shitty swag bag filled with junk I don’t want. I don’t need a pen or notebook with their logo. That’s not how you win loyalty back.”
His comment made me think of something someone once said in a workshop about marketing. When it comes to branded items, the presenter said: “Ask yourself this. When was the last time you went to the mugs in the cupboard when you needed a lawyer or a real estate agent?”
Like, never.
It was so refreshing to listen to how Kyle managed these guys. I looked them up (of course I did). Two of them were co-CEOs, one was the COO, the fourth was probably the regional guy but he didn’t say a word. And he should have, since he was the boots on the ground that might have been able to rebuild a relationship.
I have always maintained that how you treat people is a direct indication of how you run your business, but the same is true in reverse. Kyle was respectful and honest when he aired his grievances. He has integrity and runs his business for his customers, not four goons who flew in from Quebec two years too late.
xo Dana
What I’m reading
I just finished The League of Lady Poisoners and was blown away by the depth of the research, the incredible storytelling, and the GORGEOUS illustrations. I needed something lighter than lady serial killers, so I am diving into Marie Bostwick’s The Book Club for Troublesome Women. Four women get together in 1963 Virgina suburbia and form a book club. Their first read, The Feminine Mystique, opens the cracks in the perfect housewife/Americana world they’ve been sold. This is new-to-me author, but so far, I like the writing style and these women are well-drawn.
