Surprise them

Post image for Surprise them

One of my favorite snacks as a kid was Cracker Jacks. The reason was simple…. there was a prize inside. Same deal with cereal boxes. My brother and I would pick the ones that had a prize inside because, well, we just couldn’t get enough of secret decoder rings and fake tattoo stickers. Toys in cereal boxes are a thing of the past (and do they even still make Cracker Jacks??) but one thing is still huge with everybody… getting something extra.

I recently wrote a post about Five Guys Burgers and their genius marketing plan, and one of the things that I mentioned in that post is that I love that Five Guys dumps extra fries in the bag. I rarely have a big enough appetite to even eat them, but getting the extra fries makes me feel better about my purchase.

Last year I had an issue with my bluetooth headset. I love my bluetooth headset, so I was not happy. It wasn’t a big issue and the headset still worked, it was just a small feature that wasn’t working. I called the company (a human answered, much to my surprise) and told them about it. I was expecting a hassle, a required faxed copy of my receipt, my first-born child’s social security number, and so on. What I got was no questions asked and a request for my address so they could mail me another one. I didn’t even have to return the old headset.

A couple months ago I had my car serviced at a car repair place and when I came to pick up the car and pay for my repairs, I noticed when I got back in my car that they had washed the car and vacuumed out the inside. Seriously? You mean nobody smoked in it or turned the radio up real loud?? Who does this??

If you have had things like this happen to you, then you remember it, am I right? You can probably tell me all the details right now because it made such a positive impression on you. So my question to you is this… when was the last time you gave your customers a secret decoder ring? I know you don’t sell decoder rings, but you know what I’m saying. When was the last time you surprised them? When did you give them something extra that they didn’t pay for? When was the last time that your customers said of you…. wow, that was nice.

Previous post:

Next post: