You Have A Grumpy Customer Who Doesn't Trust You

Jimmy John's says "you have a free bag of chips in your loyalty account, use it or lose it by June 1".

Well, that was Saturday, and I didn't have to take advantage of free chips, but why not?

Like an idiot, I didn't know how my local franchise prioritized orders.

I'd soon find out how they prioritized orders.

Could I have ordered online? Yeah. Could I have ordered online and had my order delivered? Sure. But I'm an idiot. I got in the car and drove eight minutes to the nearest location.

When I enter the store, some guy is sitting at a booth. He informs me that it will be at least fifteen minutes before somebody takes my order because there is a large corporate order being fulfilled. I stood in P1 (position #1 in racing parlance) waiting to have somebody take my order. The three employees worked hard fulfilling this big order. They ignored me. For eleven minutes. Once there were four of us in line, they turned their attention to us.

Turning my order around was not "freaky fast".

I noticed something interesting.

When a new customer entered the store and said they placed an online order, the staff said "we'll prepare your order right now". That order jumped ahead of my order. The large corporate order was worked on in-between online orders. My order? Nope. 

Delivery orders were filled quickly.

More online orders were filled.

Eventually, they took care of my order. With a free bag of chips, I drove home, handing my wife her ham and cheese sandwich, entered correctly on the receipt.

Her sandwich was turkey and cheese.

Some of you reading this are good, high quality, kind digital marketers. You're working behind the scenes to make sure you provide a frictionless ... "freaky fast" process for your customers. You toss in a $3 bag of chips for free to stimulate a purchase, and guess what, your efforts worked!! 

And yet, due to issues out of your control, you have a grumpy customer who doesn't trust you.

I was always amazed during my time at Nordstrom how much Regional Managers (essentially an EVP-level job) and Store managers (essentially a DVP-level job or Sr. Director Job) were revered. They should have been revered. They kept the wheels on the bus. They were the ones who made sure standards were met ... and if they did a good job, the digital marketers were more effective. Regional Managers and Store Managers made everybody look good.