The Cheesecake Boats Are Coming
Jim set me up with this Cheesecake story - and I'm sure all of you have been sitting on the edge of your seat anxiously anticipating my telling of this fabulous tale...
As Jim mentioned - this weekend was he and B's 1 year anniversary (congrats!).
Jim and Christy (that's B) had their wedding cake baked by a master cheesecake baker. One of the best anywhere. Since their wedding was in October, they figured pumpkin cheesecake was fitting.
Well, one of the major selling points of Mr. Cheesecake-man was that since you couldn't save cheesecake in your freezer for a year until your anniversary, he would prepare a "fresh" couple's cheesecake for the big day so you could share the experience together with your bride/groom.
So last week Jim called up to order his cheesecake - and an additional cheesecake for 12 to go along with it. So Mr. Cheesecake-man's clever selling-point turned into a repeat order. Not bad, thought I. No problem, said Mr. Cheesecake-man.
So this weekend Jim & B went out to pick up their cheesecake. This place really isn't a store...it's a factory. They make cheesecakes for big events at Disney and such. So they walk into the little office, and sitting there is a non-english-equipped woman. She knows absolutely nothing about the cheesecake for 2 or for 12. Never heard of it. For that matter, what is cheesecake anyway?
She starts huffing and puffing and swinging her arms around and yelling in the back. It's quite clear that this situation is quite a bother to this important person. (I think she was on www.bored.com when they walked in.)
Finally she returns to report that there was no order. She seemed to suggest that they had made the whole thing up. So, Jim asks her to get Mr. Cheesecake-man on the phone. Turns out, he (the owner) forgot to write the order.
So I have three big points:
- Why let this rude, unhelpful person be the face of your organization? Of course, this happens all over the place. Just (please) don't let it happen at your business.
- When you make a promise to a customer, keep it.
- This positive energy upfront turned into negative energy on the backend. Think about it, he would have been better off never even making the offer. They still would have bought the cheesecake. It was a nice gesture, but not a closing point.
In my opinion, #3 is the big one. Making selling points that aren't really deal clenchers is not the greatest strategy. But then letting them backfire on you? That's a terrible strategy...
Hopefully this guy will realize the damage he's done and offer to feed the whole Italian family cheesecake or something.
