In 1995, I walked into our local comic book store with my little brother to buy a few packs of Magic: The Gathering, and I had a very positive experience that came to mind recently when filming a video about my hobby habits and history.
I remember being SO excited to get a new pack of Magic cards that day. My brother and I had saved up our allowances so we could each buy a pack. I’m pretty sure this was the first time we would buy anything game related with our own money (opposed to getting it as a gift).
We eagerly walked up to the counter and asked to buy two starter packs (we hadn’t yet figured out that booster packs are what to buy if you already have land cards). That’s when the store employee delivered the bad news: Magic had stopped making the Revised edition, so the store wasn’t selling that set anymore. He said something about collectors trying to snatch up all of the remaining packs.
We were crestfallen. Yet there was nothing we could do, and we turned to leave.
The store employee must have seen how sad we were, because he stopped us and said, “You two really just want to play the game, don’t you?”
We nodded, and the employee (who may have been the owner, I really don’t know), pulled two Revised starter packs from a hidden cubby behind the counter and offered them to us (we still had to pay). It was truly a magical moment.
Looking back, especially with my current lens of trying to best serve customers at Stonemaier Games, I have such a high appreciation for what happened that day. The store had a rule, and the employee broke that rule because he decided that made more sense for my brother and me.
We have all sorts of “rules” at Stonemaier Games based on scaling, automation, and sustainability. Really, any webstore, crowdfunding campaign, or distribution platform is just a set of rules designed to best serve most customers most of the time. Here’s what’s in the game, here’s the price, and you can click here to buy it.
But revisiting this Magic encounter is a great reminder to me that every customer is unique. The rules we’ve set up to best serve most people may not always make sense given a specific person’s situation. While we can’t do something for one customer that will hinder others, if we see the opportunity to add a little magic to someone’s week, we’re at least going to consider it.
In full honesty and clarity, the takeaway of this post isn’t for customers to ask publishers to make exceptions for them. In the story with my brother, we didn’t ask for special treatment. The impetus was on the store employee. As a customer of a variety of products and services, whenever I’m tempted to ask for a special exception, I ask myself, “What if everyone asked for this?”, and I can then instantly see how my request isn’t fair to other customers. You are special, but you’re also part of the collective human experience.
Can you think of a moment when a company created a magical moment for you that you didn’t even ask for?
Also read:
- Kickstarter Lesson #17: Treat Your Backers as Individuals, Not Numbers
- The 6 Core Philosophies for Great Customer Service
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20 Comments on “Every Customer Is Unique: A Magical Encounter”
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[…] Every Customer Is Unique: A Magical Encounter […]
it was my daughters 20th birthday and her request was a ridiculously priced guess handbag. i went to the ritzy, downtown shop in vancouver after work still dressed in my grubby warehouseman, forklift driver clothes. as soon as i saw the storefront i felt way out of my league, had never even walked by a shop of this caliber before, let alone go inside. took a deep, nervous breath, stepped in and was immediately greeted by a saleswoman with a very genuine smile asking if i needed help with anything, i told her i was looking for a specific handbag for my daughter. she asked if i would like a coffee, and my somewhat stunned response was, “sure?” she led me to a very nice seating area, lounge chairs and tables, took my jacket and backpack, and told me someone would be with me right away. a gentlemen appeared within seconds, introduced himself and asked my name and what i was looking for, i gave him a brief description and within a few minutes returned with 5 bags and a great cup of coffee. sat down with me and went through the bags and talked pleasant banalities while i finished my coffee. not for one second did i get the impression of being rushed or pressured…i have been rushed out of cheap cafes after a coffee i paid for🤣…and have been treated worse in the more common haunts of my purchasing habits.
it wasn’t so much the coffee, and conversation that was a surprise, it was the genuine interest and gratitude they showed a customer regardless of the fact that i looked like a scruffy nerf-herder🤣 there was zero indifference or disdain which happens more than it should.
when i was done, and was completing the purchase i made sure they knew how i felt and that they made the experience far more than just finding what my daughter wanted for her birthday.
This is such a wonderful story–thank you for sharing this, Jonathan.
I think I shared this before, but that only shows how a tiny gesture can make an active promoter: over 10 years back, I went to a store to find a new rucksack, only to find out if was more of a brick front for an online store. I was on a student’s budget so it wasn’t going to be the most valuable order, but the person working there was very helpful in taking note of my preferences and after probably 15 minutes we found and ordered a bag together.
Shortly after it arrived, a fairly generic “enjoy!” post card arrived, but it had on it a handwritten note describing in some keywords what I had looked for “Spacious, nothing too flashy, but not too boring either… I think we found it! :-)” and signed with her name. This was such an überpersonalised (without touching on privacy) experience, with minimal expense, and obviously done for anybody who got in touch with their customer service during the process, while still being unique.
That’s so great, Boris! I really like how those personalized touches can make a big difference.
Lovely story. I’ve spent the last 10 years of my career pushing the idea of ‘magic marketing’ during talks, presentations and the like. Basically I’ve been fully embracing the popular and amazing Maya Angelou quote:
People will forget what you said.
People will forget what you did.
But, people will never forget how you made them feel.
It’s a lesson in life and business to be honest. It’s also why I’ve been a strong advocate of the Random Acts of Kindness (RAOK) movement for ages – it’s such a beautiful thing.
Also, whereas other brands have R&D budgets – we have an S&D budget, for our Surprise and Delight ideas. Empowering staff to do nice things for nice people. Making life just that teensy bit better. Helping someone to smile. I’ll admit that yeah, it’s done wonders for our reputation, sales and customer loyalty to be doing this…. but honestly, the shared fuzzy feeling and human connection is the ultimate thrill that makes it all worthwhile.
I get a similar sense of that mindset and approach with Stonemaier too. Positivity, a sense of mischievous curiosity and customer engagement is there for all to see.
PS: I also constantly refer cynical marketing and business peers of the wise words of Roald Dahl: “Those who don’t believe in magic, will never find it.”
Keep on doing what you do, Jamey and team.
Steve M.
I love this, Steve! Especially this: “Positivity, a sense of mischievous curiosity and customer engagement is there for all to see.”
This is a lovely story, and it’s so memorable because someone turned a bad experience into a good one. If your expectation had been met, as in the vast majority of our customer transactions (I want to buy something, I pay for it, expectation met) then it wouldn’t be ble. The customer service experiences I remember are nearly always after a problem – whether they handled it brilliantly or awfully is what stuck with me.
The vast majority of my customer (backers) probably click pledge, and wait for the game to arrive. This is the expectation met. The first opportunity to delight there is to deliver early or deliver some extra surprise.
Some backers cause me an awful lot of problems. They don’t send their details on time, don’t read instructions, are impolite (or downright rude), or just expect exceptions to be made for them. Those backers take exponentially more of my time and attention. But they’re also a chance to delight in what would otherwise be a negative experience. When someone forgot to fill in the pledge manager on time (despite multiple reminders and months to do it) I could simply say “sorry, you had your chance”, or I can manually setup invoicing and add their details carefully to the spreadsheet. Those that I did this for are far more likely to remember the good experience than the “expectation met” backers, so it’s worth it. I had one backer claim their copy never arrived, only to find it months later lost down the back of some furniture after replacements were sent. They offered to send it back which would have saved me a little bit of money, but I told them to keep it and share with friends or local game stores, leading to a happy backer and more people playing.
In short, I think any chance to turn an “expectation not met” into a resolution is huge opportunity to delight a customer, and worth every second/penny spent on resolving it
That’s a great way of putting it, Ben, and I applaud your patience and levelheadedness when you’re approached by an angry customer who is the cause of their own issue! :)
It’s not always easy, but it’s much easier to rant and rave in my head and then send a polite email later than it might be in person :D
Great way of dealing with things! At my workplace, we actually found that the retention rate of users that had issues (including pretty grave ones, like products broken on arrival), that were solved well by our service team, was *significantly* higher than customers that had no hiccoughs and never were in touch with our team. And they were more likely to give us good reviews as well.
In 2006 I called T-mobile to get a new plan because a tree had fallen on our house. Back then your home phone was your primary phone, so I needed to add minutes to my mobile phone, since that was all I would be using. When I told them why I needed to temporarily change plans, they gave me an upgraded plan at no charge for 6 months.
I am still a customer.
That’s wonderful!
I went to my local game store looking for pokemon power cards (for my grand kids) and if they had any to sell. The employee said no, so as I was leaving, the owner came up and handed me a box, filled with power cards. I asked him how much, He told me have fun playing with my grand kids.
That’s very generous of him, David!
I listened to a podcast awhile ago (planet money I think) that talked about how contrary to popular believe WOTC closely monitors the secondary market for prices of cards. The game almost imploded in the 90’s due to over speculation and scalpers.
They don’t want cards to get too expensive or people will stop playing and only buy packs to sell cards. It would turn the game into a speculation bubble that would eventually implode, like beanie babies.
While I personally have never benefited, I’ve heard vast amount of magical stories from the customer service group at LEGO. They strive to go above and beyond. To the point that when people ask for the exceptions, they deliver. Their belief is every customer is deserving of the exception. Now this business model isn’t one that every company can strive towards. My belief is that the cost for such customer service and magical moments are built into the cost of their products. Additionally LEGO has taken the initiative to outright ban customers who abuse the systems that they have in place.
Thanks for sharing that about LEGO, Andrew. I appreciate both sides of that–the goal of treating every customer as unique, and the ability to remove the rare customers who take advantage of their generosity.
Yes! Oddly enough, it is Stonemaier-related. A few years ago I ordered some Wingspan prints for my wife for Christmas (after we had fallen in love with the game.) My order was taking slightly longer than anticipated to process/ship (I should stress that I was in no way resentful/holding this against the artist – who was shipping this stuff personally, it seems.) But when it did she not only sent an email saying “hey, sorry about the delay, its on its way!”, but she threw in a free print to go with the 3 I ordered.
As someone who works in a customer-facing environment its something I like to emulate. I’m not a fan of overly entitled customers, but I like to show my appreciation to those customers who show a little bit of patience and understanding when Im busy or stressed.
The fact that she responded personally means a lot, too. Maybe this is speculation or projection or something, but (as much as I love the Wingspan artwork) I cant imagine selling the prints is an area where you can expect a lot of repeat business. Meaning, she did this not for the sake of shoring up a repeat customer, but just to make someone happy.
I guess for me the most memorable of these types of situations are ones that arent really logical in a transactional sense – in other words, the person had no material motivation for doing this but they did anyways.
Luke: I’m glad you had such a good experience with Ana and Natalia! They’re the best. :)