Would you spend $25 to make a customer happy? Or would you spend $25 in order to make a thousand dollars? Most of us would answer yes to the second question but unfortunately not many of us would be willing to spend $25 to make a customer happy… I would.

The way I see it, is that both questions are the same. By spending $25 to ensure my customer’s happiness and satisfaction, I have just ensured that I am going to have this customer for a very long time – perhaps a lifetime, and it is very likely they will spend more than $1000 over their lifetime.

Let me tell you what happened to me yesterday. I had purchased some makeup – eyeshadow to be exact, three days ago. Along with the eyeshadow I purchased some lipstick, moisturizer ect. My bill was $120. I have made many purchases at this spa over the last 2 years, and the amount of money I have spent there is likely around two thousand dollars. That is $1000 per year. 

After trying the eyeshadow on the second day, I realized it’s not for me, and brought it back to EXCHANGE it for a different color. In fact, in the exchange that I hoped to make, I was going to spend MORE money for a better eyeshadow (money money = more profit for the company, doesn’t it?)

I was told that they would not let me do an exchange because I had used the shadow. (I used it once – remember I am trying to return it only 3 days later!) I was so angry! If it had been me, I would have weighed what a customer is likely to spend in a year ($1000 in  my case) and the cost of keeping that yearly sale coming in (approximately $25) and would have eaten the cost of the makeup. I’ll tell you, I will NEVER go back to this spa – because in my opinion, they are not willing to keep their customers happy. 

So what does this mean for the spa? Well I am 31 years old, so if I live until I am 81, that is a potential revenue of $50,000 (or more!) that the spa has missed out on. Wow-that’s a lot of dough!

Talk about short sited on their part! This is a detrimental business mistake. Business is about LONG TERM profits. Although the spa is up $25 in their sales for the month, they are down $1000 for the year, and $50,000 (or more) for the next 50 years.

Wouldn’t it have been a better investment to “eat” the $25 in order to earn $50,000?