how to inspire customer loyalty

[fox]

so last monday, wholenother and i ordered a pizza which took, frankly, quite a bit longer to arrive than it probably should have. guy got lost, or something -- that pizza had been a pizza for a while by the time it got here. but whatever, it wasn't ridiculously late like that time datlowen and i ordered from the same chain in college and the thing still hadn't arrived like four hours later, and i was down watching the delivery cars arrive so i could stop the guy if it looked like he didn't realize he was at the right building, and one driver thought i was, like, holding him up for the pizzas, offered to give me the pizzas if i'd just not make any trouble, like i was pizza-jacking him or something (which i wasn't).

anyway. so today, in the mail, i have this card from the chain (which is Papa John's, i don't mind telling you, because of what's about to follow): I don't believe, says Papa John, your recent experience with us met my standards. Please give us another chance to serve you and your family by enjoying a free large pizza on us.

did i complain? i did not. did i tip the delivery guy? i did. which means these dudes looked in their little computer and saw "time ordered" and "time returned" and concluded that they'd fucked up, and have done something proactive to fix it.

i wasn't unhappy. but now i'm delighted. go, them.

Comments

[juice817.livejournal.com]

The exact same thing happened to me with our local Papa John's, too. Great company! ;)

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

of course, better still would be not to have screwed up in the first place. something about forgiveness being easier to get than permission -- is it okay to give bad service routinely, if you're sincerely sorry about it afterwards? how many people never bother to redeem the sorry-about-that-coupons (mine says it expires in a month), so the company doesn't actually have to absorb the cost of that many free pizzas (they do have to pay printing and postage, but i bet the total cost to them is maybe two or three cents per coupon, diminishing returns etc.)? i'm sure they have some sort of analyst whose job it is to tell them that it's more cost-effective to save on training and wages and thus self-select a set of employees who don't (frankly) care all that much about (a) their jobs or (b) the fact that they're not equipped to do them very well and then apologize profusely afterwards in the worst instances of bad customer service, rather than invest the money in hiring and paying people who will do it right the first time.

but, of course, i don't know anything about economics. that's the cynic in me talking, is all. :-)

(WRITE YOUR PAPER!)

[juice817.livejournal.com]

ok, true, very true, but keep in mind that most of their employees are prolly high school teens so don't care about much of anything as long as they get paid.

but, hey, free pizza ;)

(I DON'T WANT TO :P
IT'S BORING... but i've done stuff with it today)

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

but that's what i'm saying -- if they paid higher wages, etc., would they attract the sort of employees who gave a damn? (probably not, but you never know. there are restaurants where people aspire to wait tables.)

[juice817.livejournal.com]

restaurants, perhaps - this is essentially a fast food joint, so i think that makes a difference.