Missing a Make or Break Moment

I just met my old boss at Panera for a cup of coffee and a chance to get caught up.  I wanted to hear about his company, a retail chain continuing to thrive even in these challenging times and I also wanted to share the excitement about my Make or Break Moments initiative.

It was great to reconnect and reiminse but also to talk about how, what we’d experienced in the past served as a great foundation for what we are doing today and in our future.

In the past he was the VP of corporate stores for Pearle Vision and I was the Director of Stores.  Under his leadership, we worked hard to help associates understand how they could improve the customer experience through the use of conversation.

He told me a story that exemplifies the importance of those make or break moments.  He was visiting a store in Cincinnati and chatting with a long time optician/sales person who really struggled to understand the benefits of the customer interaction.

David asked him “What is it that you like most about what you do.”

“Helping people see,” the employee replied.

David said “So if your customer was a welder,  would you have specific recommendations that you would make to help them see better?”

“Of course,” replied the employee.

“What if the customer was a teacher,” continued David.  “Would you make the same recommendation?”

“No, I would recommend something different.”

“How about if the customer worked in an office – would you recommend the same thing as the teacher and the welder?”

“No.”

“So it would be important to know what the person does for a living when you make eyeglass recommendations?”

“Yes,” agreed the employee.

And then David went in for the KILL – for the “aha moment.”  David asked, “So how do you KNOW what the customer does if you don’t engage them in a conversation?”

Ahhhhh.  You can hear it, can’t you?  The moment when the employee realizes the critical element they’ve been missing.  They had been facing make or break moments with every customer they’ve helped over the past 17 years.  In this case, they didn’t do anything to MAKE the moment memorable and they didn’t do anything to BREAK the relationship.  In this case, they MISSED the moment all together.

Does that happen in your world?  Do you miss those critical moments when you could be making a customer for life?