It's the Customer, Stupid!: 34 Wake-up Calls to Help You Stay Client-Focused

Chapter 3. Fix the Problem; Don't Fix the Blame

It costs 5 to 15 times more money to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one.

When I lived in South Carolina, I had to find a new grocery store when my uncles retired and closed our family business—Mack's Cash and Carry grocery. The store I selected shall go unnamed but it appropriately rhymes with the word "ogre." In those days, I would pile my twin sons into my old pickup truck, and we would head into town to grocery shop. We usually bought a minimum of three shopping carts full of groceries so that we only had to make the trip a couple times per month. We didn't shop so much as we swooped, pouncing on dozens of cans of such delectable items as SpaghettiOs, a primary menu item in a house with small kids. Since grocery shopping was right up there with chewing tinfoil for me, it was never a truly enjoyable experience. However, one particular afternoon turned out to be worse than the others.

My sons and I had just run up a $450 tab and were checking out our three shopping carts of groceries. I got home, started unloading, and realized I was missing a six-pack of Diet Pepsi drinks. I called the store that rhymes with "ogre" and got the manager. I explained my dilemma. He placed me "on hold" and disappeared for five minutes while he checked with the irrefutable fountain of knowledge (the bag boy) who testified that he indeed saw "the fat guy" drive out with the six-pack of drinks in the back of his pickup.

Stop the Frame

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