While reading Chris Kourtakis’ blog post in Boating Industry about the upcoming spring launch in the Northern U.S., I was glad to see that he commented on the industry’s need to “turn things around…one customer at a time”. This piece of advice remains the hallmark of virtually every business regardless of the industry or economy. He didn’t say “turn everyone into a customer” he focused on the “one”. One happy customer, turns into two, then four and so on.

It reminded of a recent trip I took to my local West Marine store. I was looking for some parts for my boat and couldn’t find exactly what I needed. I stood at the register for a minute or two while the clerks were helping other customers. One of the clerks finally noticed me standing there and radioed for the manager to come to the front register. The manager was in his office (hidden from my view) only a few feet from where I was standing. At this point the customer (me) wasn’t happy! What went through my mind was “what could have been more important than helping a customer that is waiting to buy something?”

To his credit, the manager turned things around pretty quickly. I could not find a specific part for my outriggers. West Marine didn’t carry the part. Once I realized this, I was already thinking that my next stop was Lewis Marine Supply. However he creatively found a part that was similar and gave me a suggestion on how to make a simple modification such that it would work.

Moral of the story: Earnest and thoughtful customer service can turn negative situations into positive ones by simply caring enough to help people solve their problems.