142 – Million-dollar bathroom basin
Filed in Anecdotes, Business storytelling, Corporate Storytelling, Podcast
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Customer service is everything. Listen to hear how one salesperson lost their business a $1.5 million contract.
Thank you for tuning in for another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Mark shares a small but impactful story.
Communicating important concepts is challenging, but this story does an easy job of illustrating the importance of good customer service. It occurred at a Reece showroom in Bendigo, Australia. (Reece is a plumbing and bathroom supplies business).
For your storybank
Tags: conflict, customer service, customers, sales
This story starts at 01:41
A customer walked into Reece’s Bendigo showroom, carrying a ceramic bathroom basin in his hands. He walked up to the counter and said to the salesperson, “This basin has a crack in it. I bought it on Saturday.”
The salesperson checked his computer and said, “Ah yes, at 10:10 am. But it didn’t have a crack in it then.”
The customer looked at the salesperson, dumbfounded. But the salesperson was steadfast, “Yep, it says there was no crack.”
The customer dropped the basin onto the showroom’s concrete floor, where it shattered into a thousand pieces. He turned on his heel and walked out.
The customer’s account with Reece was worth $1.5 million. He took his business to a competitor, and it took Reece two years to win it back.
Anecdote International is a global training and consulting company, specialising in utilising storytelling to bring humanity back to the workforce. Anecdote is now unique in having a global network of over 60 partners in 28 countries, with their learning programs translated into 11 languages, and customers who incorporate these programs into their leadership and sales enablement activities.