Creating the Ultimate Customer Experience: In the Dairy Section
November 17, 2009 by Angela Megasko
Filed under Creating the Ultimate Customer Experience
Our thanks this month to guest blogger, Kathy Blumenstock. Kathy currently writes Animal Planet’s “The Mole” blog http://blogs.discovery.com/the_mole. A career journalist, she has been a reporter and writer for The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, NBC News and Entertainment Tonight. Kathy also contributes feature stories to Knitchmagazine.com and Knit ‘N Style magazine.
Ever find a new product you absolutely love, then suddenly you can’t find it anywhere? Sometimes, you CAN find it again, if the right person hears your plea. It happened to me, a longtime yogurt lover, when a company introduced a crop of new flavors. A favorite prompted me to think about stockpiling as many as I could get, fearing it would vanish. “Oh it’s a regular flavor, not a seasonal one,” the cashier assured me. “It’s here for good.”
Two days later, no pear yogurt. Where’s the pear? I lamented. In three supermarkets, the same result. A fourth didn’t even carry that brand. “Please, is there anyone I can talk to?” I practically shouted. A sympathetic customer service person listened as I poured out my yogurt tale. “We just don’t get that brand,” he said. “But we COULD, if there’s enough interest in it.” I wasn’t sure if I’d need 1000 signatures on a petition—could I round up enough pear-yogurt-loving customers?
I didn’t need to. “Since you made the request,” the regional manager emailed me a month later,”I’m happy to advise you” that two area stores in his chain would begin stocking that brand. When I showed up to fill my cart, I praised everyone in the dairy department. “You’re the lady with the pear yogurt!” said one. Such fame! And such a grateful me: I’ve got 11 containers of pear yogurt right now, and I’m happy to share.
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