Have you ever had one of those customer service experiences that leave you feeling hopeless?
I came back from a trip late on Tuesday and thought I'd stop off at Wild Oats near my house to pick up a salad. I threw a few things in a salad bowl and went to pay. To my surprise the salad cost $19.50! The teller looked at me and said, "That seems too expensive, but that's what the scale says."
Being too tired to react, I walked away thinking less of Wild Oats. I probably had loaded too many heavy beets in my salad, but still twenty bucks for a salad! It would have been nice to have a more proactive teller instead, saying something like, "Geez, that seems too expensive for that salad. Let's adjust the price to, say, $15.00." While $15 dollars still seems like a lot for a salad I would have felt much better knowing that someone at Wild Oats cared about me as a customer. I'm sure the profit on a $15.00 salad is still quite a lot.
The reality is that people have a lot of choices when it comes to salads here in Boulder. When it comes to a brand, it's all of the little things that make people connect.
The next time I'm in the mood for a salad there's a higher likelihood of driving a bit further to Whole Foods.