Go the Extra Mile

It's a no-brainer, don't you think? That a company should try just a little harder to make their customers feel special? And I don't mean "flowers and candy" special, just a little something thoughtful. The kind of every day little things partners do for each other (if they have a successful partnership).

As you may have noticed, the CRC website was hacked earlier this week. We had it back up and running within a couple of hours. Our website technician explained that the hackers had added popular keywords (mostly related to sex and prescription medicines) and then directed bots to keep hitting the site. It was a purely destructive act designed to shut down the site. What happens is, the site gets overloaded, and Network Solutions servers notice this overload, and shut the site down.

How nice would it have been if Network Solutions had a mechanism to alert me to this activity. Just a phone call or email (a phone call may be preferred, since host site shenanigans are involved) to say "hey, something is going on with your website that looks unusual". I could check it out, and fix it quickly.

Little things mean a lot. I used to have two large German Shepherds, and although both were well-trained enough to allow people into the house to repair things, they looked very intimidating. When George, from CooperHVAC, would come to my house to work on the air conditioning, he often came right after his lunch. He would get an extra large French fry order and save some for the dogs. Of course, I continue to use Cooper because he did great work, but his thoughtfulness towards the two beasts made me feel especially loyal.

What little things could you be doing for your customers? Is there some contact, some bit of information, or some other little tidbit that you could give them that would make them feel valued?