– Lucy Glennon specializes in customer service training and recruitment and hiring. She can be reached at 866.645.2047 or lucyg@hireguru.com. www.hireguru.ca.
CUSTOMER SERVICE – In recently saw an article online, Jia Jiang took a hidden camera to inoculate himself against rejection by embarking on what he calls ‘100 Days of Rejection Therapy’ – making odd requests of strangers and hoping to hear ‘no’ so he’d get used to it.
‘It’s not the rejection, it’s the fear of rejection that holds us back,” he said. He asked for a burger refill at a restaurant, he got a ‘no’. He asked a stranger to borrow $100, again, ‘no’. He secretly video recorded his experiences and posted them on YouTube.
Until he ran into Jackie Braun of Krispy Kreme donuts. He asked her to create a donut for him in the shape of the Olympic Rings. He said he needed them in 15 minutes.
Braun asked questions, and drew out a design for him. Jia waited for the inevitable ‘no’, but 15 minutes later, Braun returned with her creation – the Olympic logo in donuts. Stunned – Jia asked where to pay, and Braun answered, ‘Don’t even worry about it, that one is on me.’
Within two days, the video had gone viral with more than 2.6 million views. Customers have streamed in to meet Jackie. The stores website and email address was mobbed with congratulations. Jackie’s response? “I guess people have been missing this kind of customer service.”
What was the lesson learned? Unexpected good service is newsworthy today, and word will spread like wildfire! I Love this story!