Did I tell you about the time Mack was ready to fire us because of a missing truck in Mississippi?

It’s a great customer loyalty story – about the value of beating the heat by taking responsibility and quick corrective action.

Here’s the story.

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We printed 15,000 books in North Carolina and sent them to Mack on a truck headed for Mississippi. The truck was due to arrive there in 3 days….a week ahead of our delivery deadline.

Three days later, it hadn’t arrived. The trucking company said there had been traffic issues and it would arrive the next day.

It didn’t. The trucking company said there were mechanical issues and that it would arrive the next day. It didn’t.

Mack was getting hot. We were too.

On the third day, Mack got so aggravated that he said to us, “If the books aren’t here in 24 hours, you’ll have to reprint them. And then, I’m going to cancel my contract!”

He didn’t care that it would cost $15,000 – 20,000 to reprint the entire shipment. He didn’t care that the truck would most likely be there any time. He just wanted his books and he felt like he was getting the major run-around. We did too – from the trucking company, which still couldn’t tell us the whereabouts of the truck and driver.

In deciding on how to handle various problems, my boss often said “Err on the side of action”.

That meant I got to get on a plane headed for Mississippi the next day. To do what? Ride up and down the highways looking for a truck full of books?! She suggested I just show up in his office with coffee and doughnuts.

And so the next day, I flew from North Carolina to Mississippi, got a rental car, stopped at a local market for a dozen doughnuts and a thermos of coffee and drove to Mack’s office. He was shocked to see me. I said, “You can hold me hostage until the truck arrives.”

He laughed hysterically. Then he got very serious and said, “But I still want my books.”

By just showing up in his office, he saw how serious we were about his concern. Then he heard me on the phone – frequently – with the trucking company. We were no longer some far off company saying in essence, “the check is in the mail.”

He set me free from my hostage status so that I could get a hotel room that night. At 7:00 the next morning, I swung by the loading dock on my way to his office and … THE TRUCK WAS THERE!!!

I grabbed a box to show as proof of truck arrival and booked it to Mack’s office. He beamed when he saw it.

Mack had been ready to fire us two days earlier. But now, he was grateful. He knew it wasn’t our fault that the truck didn’t arrive as scheduled, but he appreciated the way we took responsibility for it – the strong action we took. He appreciated it so much that he offered to sign an early extension of his contract – for another 5 years. He was a customer for at least another 15 years and as far as I know, he is still a customer today.

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This was much stronger action than many companies would have taken. Was it worth it? In addition to my time, it cost us $850 for a plane ticket, a rental car, doughnuts, coffee and a hotel room. We saved a $15,000 potential printing bill and we saved the relationship, which if lost, would have cost us several thousand dollars times at least 15 years. An additional benefit was the morale and productivity boosting effect the happy ending had on those back at the office.

Strong, quick action – an excellent way to beat the heat – an excellent return on investment.

copyright 2009 – Jan Bolick, Business Class Inc

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From early experiences like the one described above, I adopted this credo for similar situations:

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