It was 2:00pm Tuesday afternoon, and Donna had completely forgotten to order materials for the presentation she would be giving at 8:00 the next morning. She immediately contacted her vendor with a slight feeling of panic.
Evie answered the phone and Donna told her story.
“I know overnight delivery is out of the question because it would get here too late.” said Donna.
“Well we could ship it air courier and it could get there tonight.” Evie suggested.
“How much would that cost?” Donna wanted to know.
After a few calculations, Evie gave her the shipping cost.
“For that price, I could fly round trip and pick it up myself.” Donna responded with a half-hearted chuckle.
“Do you have any other suggestions how we could do this?” asked Evie.
“You guys are near your airport, right?”
“Yes.”
“Could you drop it off at a commercial airline there, ship it via their “package” service to get to my airport? I live close to my airport and could stop by tonight, If I know the flight number and arrival time. Use the “Counter-to-Counter” rate – it’s the cheapest.”
“You sound like you’ve done this before.” replied Evie.
“Yeah, I had a customer is the same situation a few months ago. That’s how we solved it.”
“Well, we have not done it that way before, so let me look into it. I’ll call you within the hour.”
In less than 30 minutes, Evie called back, gave Donna the flight and arrival time information, and the cost of shipping – which was less than 1/3 the cost of the air courier she had originally quoted.
“Donna, thanks for giving us this new way to serve our customers,” said Evie, “I’m sure we’ll be using this process in the future.”
“No problem,” laughed Donna, with a bit of relief in her voice, “I’m glad we could partner on this one.
= = = = = = = = = =
Evie’s question to Donna – “Do you have any other suggestions?” – was not one of frustration, but a direct ask for ideas. Her organization had always followed the one way to handle such requests. Donna’s experience in working with her customers presented a unique alternative methodology for solving a problem that had not been tried by Evie’s organization. But you can bet it would become one of their options from here on out.
The key here is to keep the customer involved. When presented with a challenge, customers might see an angle service providers may not (what with policies and procedures so firmly engrained in their heads).   Learn not only to see problems from their perspective, but possible solutions as well.
What have you learned from your customers recently?
