Thoughtful and proactive for a customer in need

#656 in the Project is taken from a post by Ty Sullivan of Cafe Metro

Cafe Metro @cafemetro

“While running one of our contests on a gloomy rainy morning, I noticed one of our followers had posted a picture of herself with the Tweet message saying, “Does this look sad enough?”

Curious, I Tweeted her. “Not doing the contest today? Why so blue?”

Turns out her father had passed away the day before and she was unable to return to home to attend the funeral due to finances. I had remembered that at one point she had Tweeted us questioning why we didn’t carry Honey Nut Cheerios as a cereal selection as is it was her favorite. So I called the store she ordered from regularly and had the manager check her order history to see what she enjoyed ordering on a regular bases.

From there, we created a small gift basket with her favorite lunch and snacks and right in the center, a box of Honey Nut Cheerios and delivered it to her that morning.

She was so overwhelmed with gratitude she could not stop talking about us on Twitter and even came by the store to hug our manager.”

Today’s Lagniappe (a little something extra for good measure) – Everyone did a commercial, right?  Here is a fun spot featuring Ty spoofing Braveheart for a local car dealership:

Lagniappe defined: A marketing lagniappe, i.e. purple goldfish,  is any time a business goes above and beyond to provide a ‘little something extra’. It’s that unexpected surprise that’s thrown in for good measure.

How do you stand out in the sea of sameness? How do you win repeat customers and influence word of mouth?

What’s Your Purple Goldfish?

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