04Apr Postman Who Goes The Extra 300 Miles To Delight His Customer!
Credit: ITV News
You’ve probably heard the phrase ‘go the extra mile’ to create customer delight! Well, here’s a great example of someone who went an extra 300 miles to do it!
When Cornish postmaster David Shepherd realised he had forgotten to get a customer’s passport in the post he took it on himself to make sure he got it! The customer who lived in Rye, Sussex, needed it by 9 o’clock the next morning as he was due to set off on a trip to Amsterdam for a charity board meeting.
David drove 50 miles to Exeter station and then caught the train to London Paddington, took the Tube to St Pancras, jumped on a further train to Ashford, Kent, and then a final train to Rye. He had just 15 minutes to deliver the passport before catching the train straight back. The journey cost him more than £150!
“I knew it was vital he had it” said David, “His neighbour brought it in. But it wasn’t given to the postman at collection time, so I finished work at 7pm and drove to Exeter to catch the 1am train to London.”
David said his instinct was to “keep the customer happy”. “I just thought, ‘I know the customer, I know it has to get there’. I didn’t want to let him down.”
He told ITV News: “I’m really glad I did it. It was my mistake in the first place that the passport didn’t go to the postman. It was pretty tiring. I had worked from 7am that morning and then I caught the train at 1am the next morning and with no sleep and when I finally arrived I had to turn around and go back again within half an hour. When I finally arrived Mr Monro’s sister was speechless that I travelled up that night. Since he returned from his trip he bought me a nice bottle of Champagne and he’s been nothing but grateful ever since. It was a long day and I was really running on adrenalin.”
It’s a great example of somebody taking responsibility and ‘exceeding customer expectations’ and demonstrates all 6 Ingredients Of Customer Delight:
- It produces a wow reaction!
- It’s spontaneous or unexpected!
- It’s the personal touch!
- It makes the customer feel valued!
- It’s genuine… and…
- It creates a ‘talking point’!
When it comes to customer delight, how good are you and your people at ‘going the extra mile’? How good are you at encouraging and empowering them to take responsibility to do so? Customer Delight is a great way of showing customers you care, and it’s a wonderful way of getting people to tell others about you too. David got absolutely loads and loads of publicity as a result of his action!
Creating Delighted And Devoted Customers is Characteristic #3 of The 7 Characteristics Of Dramatically And Demonstrably Different Businesses and for more tips and techniques on delighting customers, Here’s a free e-book on Customer Delight you might find useful.
(Download it, or we can put it in the post if you prefer!)
