Its often not what you do, its how you do it

The other day I redeemed a reward from Flybuys (whoot freebie!) and went into Noel Lemming to pick it up.

Flybuys (Loyalty NZ) have made it so easy these days, no more waiting for a piece of paper to arrive via snail mail (sorry NZ Post yet another nail), you just order online, take your flybuys card into Noel Lemmings and they swipe your card and give you your booty.  Great way of streamlining the process!

So when I go into the store a happy lady behind the counter smiles, swipes and go’s off to get my item.

Standing next to her behind the counter are two guys, looking at a till screen.  In walks a backpacker, holding one of those bendable camera tripods and a receipt.  The first guys says hello and the backpacker mentions he brought the tripod and the top clip was broken.  The guy takes it from him and without saying anything gives it to the guy next to him, who walks off without a word.

The backpacker looks confused and uncomfortable.

The guy come back with a new tripod and hands it to the backpacker, who says thanks and walks off.

The girl comes back and says sorry they are out of the item I wanted.  She looks up their stock levels and tells me the stores that have them, then offers to get one shipped to her for me to pick up the next day.  All said with a smile.

So the backpacker got a successful outcome, but with no communication and no great engagement.

I didn’t get an outcome (that day) but great communication and a great engagement.

I got my item the next day and a happy ending.  The backpacker just got an ending.

So its not just what you do that counts its often how you do it.