I’ve written before on the ripple effect of bad customer service—the loss of one customer leading to the loss of others by word of mouth badwill. Now the flip side. A true story from the Ocean City, MD Domino Pizza.
I was talking with my collegiate son about a recent blog post on the Unique Selling Proposition and gave the example of Domino Pizza’s ad campaign offering free pizza if not delivered within 30 minutes. Since it was dinner time he got a craving for, what else, pizza. He said “Let’s go to Dominos”, which was just down the street.
We placed our order for 2 large pies and were told to return in 15 minutes. About 20-25 minutes later we returned. The young man who took our order said the computer malfunctioned and our order was not placed and we’d have to wait another 15 minutes. OK, what can you do? Father-son bonding time, not bad.
While we were waiting, John Cropper, the General Manager, approached us and apologized for our wait. I said we understood. Then John did something that illustrates the power of customer service. To my surprise, he not only put in a store credit for us for a future order, he handed me my money back too! He also threw in a cheese bread (to my son’s hungry delight). I was more than thankful, hence this post for John (hey John). John planted seeds of goodwill for Dominos. I’ve repeated the story several times already. And it just so happens that I have this little blog thing to praise John and his understanding of hungry pizza customers.
Now for those who read this post for the Black Book reference, I apologize for the wait. John told me he had just read The Black Book by Kamron Karrington. It is a marketing book for pizza owners and is, in fact, assigned reading for Domino managers. Whatever is in that book, I’m sure there’s a chapter on customer service and goodwill. John Cropper certainly did his homework.
