Ultimately all our customers are looking for quality products or services. But the experience along the way is equally important. For example, my son-in-law works for a high end renovation company in Columbus, OH that pays meticulous attention to cleaning up the job site—-not at the end of the job, but at the end of every day—-and this on multi-day/multi-week renovation projects. Customers can leave for work and come home each evening to find their home changed but just as clean as they left it with no tools in sight or furniture out of order. This company's attention to a clean and orderly environment every day is going the extra mile but keeps their high end clientele happy.

Customers rate a positive sales interaction on number of issues: 

1. Was the salesperson pushy OR polite and available?
2. Did the salesperson know their limitations—when to say “no deal?” Remember, all sales interactions boil down to one of the following: win-lose ("We made out well on this transaction by taking unfair advantage of you"), lose-win ("We lost on this sale with hopes that we'll get plenty of business in the future with you"), win-win ("We made the sale at a profit and you received a great product or service for a fair price in return"), or no-deal ("We were not able to get to a win-win this time but we're leaving in good terms with hopes of doing future business together").
3. Did the salesperson ultimately underpromise and overdeliver?
4. For online sales—was the marketing message clear and the website transaction process simple and quick (think Amazon 1-click ordering…less hoops to jump through…less links to click to get it done!)?
5. If some type of rebate was offered—was it easy to claim? Some companies seem to delight in making their forms rival mortgage applications, and, in the process turn off their customers.

Next week we'll consider a few more things your customers really want. If you have some to add to this list or other comments related to this post, please email me at luke@lukekuepfer.com.