What is a Customer For Life Worth?
My wife and daughter are in Paris this week so this morning I decided to drive our Suburban to drop off my son at school, (I usually drive our other car). When I started to drive I noticed that wheels seemed to be pulling to the right, so after dropping off my son, I went to Discount Tire Co., where I bought the tires a little over a year ago.
Turns out there was a razor blade and a nail in one of the tires and the right front tire was shot because it had been driven on the side wall. My first thought was, "here comes a $400 bill". Would you believe they replaced both tires for free? I only paid for the additional warrantly of $22 per tire.
So this company gave me almost $400 worth of tires today, and driving away I thought about what that gesture is going to be worth to the company. There is no doubt that I will forever buy my tires at Discount Tire Co., which will no doubt be worth thousands of dollars to the company, and there is little doubt that I will tell a lot of people about my experience, potentially worth even more money.
Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing calls this "sneezing". Whereas your experience with a product or service is so remarkable, you must tell people.
AAHHHHHCCCHHHOOOO! Discount Tire Co. 4 Life, Baby.
Gotta agree with you. I loved Discount Tire when we lived in Auburn. I wish I could find a place half as good around here.
Posted by: Doug_G | November 05, 2004 at 05:49 AM