The More-Customer Stories

Gym was the last place I expected to have drama happened, but it did. Last week, the trainer from my aerobic class told us it was her last day. Not sure what the reason was. Some said it was because the gym couldn't pay her, others said because her parents were sick. No matter the reason, people were disappointed that there would be a new trainer. One of the girls, who has worked out there for almost 5 years, wrote a petition and managed to get 2 pages of signatures. They all went to the gym management expressing their wish to have her back....

The petition did nothing. We still ended up having a new teacher. Half of the class didn't show up, of course. If I were the gym's owner, I would be happy how much the customers were attached to the class. This class only took place 2 times a week, but it has managed to attract many people. Interestingly, the people who have been there for longer than 3 years were not necessarily people living nearby. That I think, was some business success. 

Also during that same week, my coworkers and I were ordering lunch from this restaurant in midtown. The line was long and the restaurant was extremely busy. During the chaos, someone messed up our orders and we had to bring them back. While waiting for the order to be fixed, we were casually chatting about how our orders could be messed up so much. After handing the fixed order back to us, the restaurant manager said "We are sorry that this happened to you. I am going to keep this receipt, and for the next order, please give me a call. Your order will be on the house."

Two complaints were being handled very differently. I don't think local businesses pay enough attention to customer loyalty when they are out trying to get sales. It struck me how effective a Groupon campaign can drive traffic to local businesses and yet many business owners fell short in building and maintaining the loyalty. One thing I know from my own experience, that I would be more likely to come back in the second story and spend more.