Pleasing People

Over the weekend I bought a S$ 300 item in a retail store. At the time of payment the cashier informed me that I was entitled to a S$ 20 voucher that I can use for my next purchase. Only trouble, I had to go to another counter, join a queue to get my voucher and then I was informed that I can use the voucher from next Monday only. I am sure that there is some good administrative and commercial thinking behind this concept, only, as a customer, I was upset because I just don’t like running around, queuing, and making another trip to town in order to use my S$ 20 voucher.

I told the sales person to feedback to their management that it is no point to have a promotion, which is supposed to be something good for the customer, but, at the same time upsetting, the customer. (To be fair she put me immediately in touch with the manager and the issue was settled to my satisfaction).

Take away – If you want to do something to make another person happy then just do that and let them enjoy, nice and easy. Examples:

Praise – If you want to praise a person, just do that. Don’t follow up with ‘but you should also do this better’.

Giving – If you want to give something, give. I think in most cases it is not a good idea to attach condition to the gift.

If you do a favour, just help. Don’t negotiate what the other person should do in return for you.

If you are in charge of doing promotional campaign for your company. Keep in mind to keep your customer happy by making implementation easy. Happy customers will return.

In other words. Give. Let people easily enjoy that you want to give. The vast majority of people will truly appreciate this, you will end up having credit in their hearts and positive responses will be there in the future.