Customer Delight vs Customer Disgust

What is the difference between customer delight and customer disgust? Very little! But, the impact of the difference is huge! Whilst that may be bad news to some, the good news is that to delight the customer takes very little effort. It just takes the right attitude!

Let me explain by describing two recent experiences I had.

On my weekend bike ride with a bunch of friends we always stop off for a coffee mid-ride. On one of these occasions at the Café we'd stopped in, we had been waiting over 40 minutes for just a simple coffee! When we enquired as to what was happening, we were told it would be another 15 minutes by one of the wait-staff! Having already waited what seemed like an unreasonable time for our coffee, we requested a refund. The Café owner was behind the counter and did not even acknowledge us, let alone offer an apology! We took our refund and headed off on the rest of our ride never to return to this Café!

On another ride, we stopped at a different Café. There, while our coffee was being made, we received a complimentary plate of warm raisin toast from the Café owner, some fresh bottled water and then had our coffees served in under 5 minutes! The Café owner chatted with us and enquired about our ride. For those of you near Geelong and the Surf Coast in Victoria, Australia, that Café is the Rhino - well worth a visit! We get a similar reception at Annie's Providore in Barwon Heads.

Can you see the subtle difference between providing your customer with a disgusting and a delightful experience? And how little cost and effort is required to achieve customer delight? Now guess which Café is our regular coffee stop each weekend? Yes, no prizes for that, although if you worked out that it is the Rhino on Saturday and Annie's on Sunday then that is impressive!

It takes just a little effort, but the right attitude to delight the customer and get repeat business!