My wife and I went into Lush (a UK retail company) at the weekend.
My wife purchased some face cleaner and the shop assistance asked us “If we drink green tea?”
I do, so replied “Yes”
The shop assistant gave us a box of Clipper green tea for free.
It’s not as if we spent loads of money – we didn’t.
It’s not that they were advertising the free green tea offer – they weren’t.
We exited the shop surprized and happy.
Will we go back and purchase again?
Of course!
Will we tell others about our unexpected gift?
Of course!
Will Lush gain more customers as a result?
Of course!
Such a simple and inexpensive gesture can make all the difference.
How do you go the ‘extra mile’ and surprize your customers and make them return again and again and again?
Please share your views in the comments below.
Andrew is a website builder and helps small businesses with their on-line presence…so they can grow their customer list and increase sales. That’s it! That’s what we do each and every day.
In business if we have something for customer without putting load on their shoulders,they will sure become our regular visitors.
In blogging if our blog have something for visitors, they will each day visit our blog.
Maja
And that something on your blog has to be great advice…provide excellent advice and visitors will return.
Andrew
That is right, simple gift can make a difference. Even the green tea.
I surprise my customers with free pdf’s with some great tip/tips. It works, but I try to figure out other ways too 🙂
Daniel
I think free PDF’s are the “norm” now. it’s expected. You want to be better than the norm and provide much much more.
Andrew
In a recent email, you asked for feedback about your blog. Here it is:
The thing I liked the most was the white space and the large type. On many websites, the text is small and crammed into spaces, and I immediately feel overwhelmed with the feeling that there is too much for me to read in the time slot that I want to give to it. I did not feel that on your web at all. Those two factors motivated me to peruse the site more completely.
Janis,
Thanks for that feedback and thanks for viewing the site.
White space and larger fonts are crucial – well I think so!
Andrew
Great example Andrew. I love Lush shops, there are some even here in Italy, and their way to do business. My way to go the extra mile is giving free advices through my articles in the field of Self Improvement and trying to give real tools for readers to improve thir lives. But I probably should think around something like this. Doing something more or presenting things differently.
Great advice and great post. 🙂
Andrea
As I said to Daniel above…giving things away like PDF’s and advice is becoming the norm.
If we want to be different…stand out…we have to do more than that.
Andrew
Any idea? 🙂
You’re right though, everyone gives away pdf files and such. I aim to give great content through articles but I surely can add something else. Free consultations maybe, which I already do but not in an organized manner. 🙂
Andrea
Free monthly webinairs, free 30 minutes consultations, one hour free consultation for one lucky visitor a month…
Andrew
Thanks for the hints Andrew, I’ll use them soon. Have a great weekend!
Going to extra mile and over delivering always works!
Zinedine
How do you go the extra mile and over deliver?
Andrew
Corinne
Thank you for those kind words.
One thing that the corporate world taught me was customer service. We treated all our work colleagues like customers and ensured we were there for each other.
However I do think excellent customer service is rare these days and that’s why it is nice and surprizing when you are on the receiving end of it.
I’ve just finished reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s latest book ‘The Thank You Economy’ and it’s all about providing excellent customer service.
Andrew
P.S. I also like green tea with lemon and with honey!
Nice way to make your readers a stable and loyal visitors of your blog……..
Nice article thanks for sharing it……….
Inspiring post Andrew…!
If we value our customers and visitors then they will also understand our value. Give quality content, visitors will come back and back surely. Short post but insightful.
My site is still very young, I don’t sell any products, so I have nothing to “give” away (everything is free). Any other suggestions for gaining reader loyalty?
Eric,
Provide the best content you can. What do your visitors wnat…then give it to them. Don’t hold back.
Andrew
Again, you have opened up yet another door to why my blog may not be doing so great right now. Making people feel excited about your blog is something that really should be put on my list of things to do. I get so caught up in the SEO and other things to get it noticed by Google, that I forget about the reader.
Wade
SEO and getting Google to crawl your site is importqant but get some great content published.
Don’t spend too much time tweaking.
Andrew
Expect the unexpected. That was exactly happened to you. And i agree with that method if you just take the extra time to help people out and go the extra mile you will soon get it back in return.
I think we should write research based posts that must enhance the knowledge of our visitors.Our blog also must have to purchase so that our visitor becomes customer.