My Super Bowl Sunday Customer Satisfaction Contest

Photo (CC) by Dan Taylor, Flickr

It’s Super Bowl Sunday. I knew two teams were vying for a trophy. And the media didn’t let me forget that lots of advertisers were going for best commercial.

What I didn’t know was that I also would be running a contest, a contest in terms of customer satisfaction (the customer being me).

Here is the brief play-by-play. You can decide who won in terms of a satisfied customer.

The first company missed a promised delivery. When called, a courteous person answered quickly, took our information, and indicated that a redelivery would be made. However, the day ended and we never received our item. (This story doesn’t end. On Monday, another call was made and another promise was made. The delivery arrived today, Wednesday.)

Company two took my online order and everything worked well and the order went through. However, the confirmation email didn’t have the entire order on it. Adding to the situation was my failure to not review the email until probably 30 minutes had passed. So 30 minutes before the promised delivery time (on one of the biggest pizza delivery days – okay you know what this company sold), I called. Again prompt pickup of the call. I explained the situation fully expecting to be told that my order would be delayed or that it would come at two different times. Instead, the person who took my call quickly pulled up my order. The missing item was added back in and I was told that everything would arrive on time. Needless to say, I was skeptical.

Within 5 minutes of the scheduled time, there was a knock on the door and my entire order was there, hot and tasty, ready to be enjoyed.

So who won my customer satisfaction contest? Who will get word-of-mouth testimonials?

Customer satisfaction – make promises and keep those promises. (And don’t promise if you can’t deliver.)

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About Glenn Muske

Glenn Muske is an independent expert on rural small business, working as GM Consulting – Your partner in achieving small business success. He provides consulting, and writes articles for county extension agents and newspapers across North Dakota. Previously, he was the Rural and Agribusiness Enterprise Development Specialist at the North Dakota State University Extension Service – Center for Community Vitality.