Customers as Friends

I don't get out much, if it wasn't for meeting people through our family business, I would be a hermit. In fact, before we moved the business to a store front location, I was pretty depressed working out of a warehouse where three walk-in customers per week was considered busy foot traffic. Now, three customers per day is considered moderate to slow. When the pandemic first hit, all the shutdowns caused a panic because our main contracts for maintenance and repair were all the major gyms, hotels, and club houses. The gym-goers saved us from seeing a downturn; they came in wanting to buy home gyms and we happily complied. Conversations usually started by phone, then went to email with links for browsing/shopping purposes and then an order would be placed and our guys would go to the customers home to do the set-up. Everything up until delivery often went through me and I pride myself in my customer relations experience (thank you, Kim Edmondson). Kevin shared with me when the clients would say wonderful things about me and our customer service. I would joke over email or text message with some of the customers, the one's that shared my humor and were easy to chat with. I would 'sometimes' make reference to being new to the area or not knowing too many people, as a way to feel out whether they wanted to hang out. This approach didn't work, no one took the bait and I definitely wanted to keep the customer happy (at very least, keep someone from having to file a restraining order or anything). Basically, I had given up on 'customers as friends'. I figured it was probably for the best since business is business and I stunk of desperation. Imagine my surprise when a client turned the tables on me, I was so shocked that it took multiple clarification emails for me to fully grasp the forming friendship. It all started with a poor customer service experience (don't all lasting friendships start that way)? Her name is Sherry* and she needed warranty work done on a treadmill that was purchased at a big box store. We looked after the request but with so many promises and failures by the manufacturer, Sherry and her husband decided to return the treadmill. With our excellent communication, she said she would come back to us for her next equipment purchase. This week Sherry did come back, she liked the unit I had on the showroom floor and she told me a bit about her recent weight gain. If I had to guess, she may be in her fifties and her weight gain looks like my Pasta Tuesday bloated belly. She is a very well put together woman and very friendly. We had great conversation and I told her about my weight gain. I explained how my Fitbit is a great help for encouraging and tracking my fitness goals. It would have been the perfect product placement ad for Fitbit if I had actually managed lose to any weight in the last 14 months 🙄. Sherry was polite and let me show her my app on the phone. I had already sold her on the treadmill and now I was selling her on something I don't even stock in the store; that's when I stopped myself from chatting her ear off. I said goodbye to Sherry and her husband and thanked them for their business. Next thing I knew, Sherry was emailing from her car. She asked where I had bought my Fitbit; I said Costco (if you guessed Costco before reading this sentence, 10 points for you 😉). I said she may be able to find it at Best Buy too. An hour later, another email... Costco was sold out and so was Best Buy. Five minutes later, another email, Ebay had one and Sherry wanted to know if it was the right one. I said yes and I offered a few of my extra wrist bands. Then I offered to help her with the set-up of her Fitbit when it arrives; and she said 'I was going to ask if you would' 😆. I kept calm and said 'of course' and she replied (word for word - copied and pasted from her actual email) 'I got a new treadmill, Fitbit and made a new friend. A productive day!'

I am cautiously optimistic... a new friend and someone to help me lose weight or eat junk food with; I’m happy with either one 😁

*since I don't know how private my new-found friend is; I have disguised her name for the purpose of this post but I SWEAR the story/events are 100% true (Scouts Honor)