How to Lose a Customer

I am a creature of habit. When it comes to brand loyalty, you can count on me. I'll even go into the same restaurant, year after year, and order the same thing. It takes a lot to make me change suppliers or the places where I make purchases. Recently, I have made some changes. You see it's possible to lose even the most loyal customer. Here's how to do it.

1. Be petty and rude. My first example involves a convenience store. I usually frequent 3 convenience stores in my area. One if I am heading north or west, one if I am heading south, and one if I am heading east. They're in my direct path and what every convenience store should be....convenient. Two weeks ago, after patronizing one store for years, I popped in and asked for change for a $5 bill. I was heading downtown and needed the change to park at Finch subway. Normally I deal with the mother or son. I sometimes deal with the father. He ignored me, served a customer who had came in after me, and sat down. Figuring that he didn't hear me I repeated my request. As he slammed down 2 toonies and a loonie on the counter he barked"This is not a bank. Next time go to the  bank."  I replied "Thank you very much. I am a regular customer and, if that is how you feel, from now on I will go to another store." That's exactly what I have been doing. When I head south, the store in the small plaza across the street from his store gets my business.
2. Don't know the preferences of your regular customers and interrogate them. Next, let's talk about butter chicken and nan. Yes I always call ahead and order butter chicken, rice and nan from the same restaurant. Twenty minutes later I drive over there, pay my money and pick it up. Nice and easy. It's a pleasure doing business with you. Today, I tried to do the same thing I've done for years. First, I was asked if I wanted regular, garlic or butter nan. My response was "I dunno. I've never been asked this before. Whatever you usually give me." Then it was "Do you want mild, regular or spicy chicken?" I guess I am being difficult but one would think that after calling the same store for years and placing the same order they would know what they give me. I like Pizza Hut. You call, they see your number, and it's "Hello Miss Thornley". "It's Thornley-Brown" I always have to say but at least they're trying. They continue "Will you be picking up at our Weldrick location and having the Pepperoni Lovers, personal pan with extra cheese, and Pepperoni  on top nice and crisp?" I find this comforting.
3. Make things complicated. I've been dealing with the same travel agents for years, one if I am heading to the Caribbean, the other if I am going to Asia or the Middle East. I can't count the number of times I have had my mother join me after a business trip back to Jamaica. She gets a package, I pay extra to share a hotel room with her and for transfers. The same travel agency always handles it smoothly. No fuss. I attempted to do the same thing recently and it was complicated. "I don't think we can do that. There are no deviations from packages." "Really, then how come I've done this many times?" I pointed out. It was exhausting. So, I called up itravel2000 and within minutes, I had a quote for exactly what I wanted.
4. Get customers excited about your products and then make it difficult for them to find them. Skechers is the poster child for this.  Their commercials advertise running shoes in vibrant colours. 

Try finding them at the store. I've been at this since the spring. I couldn't find the colours I really wanted but the memory foam shoes were so comfortable (like slippers) that I settled for another colour. Fast forward to September. I noticed the commercials had The Shoe Company in the lower right corner on some frames. So, I headed over to one of their stores yesterday. I got the same "We don't have those colours" line. "That's impossible" I insisted. "They're in the commercial." "We don't have any commercials" was the response. "Well" I said "It's the commercials that got me here". (If Skechers is going through the trouble of including the stores where their products are available in their commercials, I would think that the stores should know about it.) Finally, the manager overheard what was going on and came over. She decided to do a search on the computer. She found the colour I wanted in the databse.  I paid for the shoes and they will be delivered to my home in a few days. Don't make customers jump through hoops to find products that you've advertised.

So I have a new travel agent and I'm stopping in at a different convenience store. As for the butter chicken and nan, well it was a new employee and she will receive more coaching so I'll stick with them. I'll have my running shoes in a few days so Skechers also gets a reprieve. After all, I can only handle so many changes in 2 weeks.

Anne Thornley-Brown is the President of Executive Oasis International, a Toronto team building firm that specializes in executive retreats, team building retreats, and corporate event planning. They have served clients from 18 countries in North America (USA, Canada), the Caribbean (Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica). the Middle East (Dubai, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia), Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand), and Africa (South Africa, Sudan, Egypt).

In addition to her own corporate team building blog, Anne blogs for Cvent and The Huffington Post.

Flickr: Gordon Ednie