May 21, 2025 • 18 mins
Digital accountability has revolutionized customer service—and it's the best thing that ever happened.
With everyone carrying a camera and a megaphone in their pocket, businesses can no longer hide behind poor service. Yelp scores, online reviews, and viral moments now reveal the true character of an organization.
This radical transparency brings us to what customer experience expert John DeJulius calls the “Service Recovery Paradox”—the counterintuitive truth that customers whose problems are brilliantly resolved often become more loyal than those who never had a problem at all. The formula is deceptively simple: respond quickly, own the issue without deflection, and overcorrect with generosity that surprises and delights.
Take the story of a customer whose suit jacket was ruined by hair color at John’s salon. Rather than argue over responsibility or offer the bare minimum, John immediately sent a check covering the entire suit—and added a complimentary massage as an apology. The result? Not only did the customer continue her patronage, she referred 18 new clients over the next year. All from a $275 investment no traditional marketing could match. As John puts it:
“What advertising could I spend $275 on and get 18 new customers?”
His philosophy extends to the “If it gets to me, it’s free” policy, where his personal cell phone number is prominently displayed in every salon. This creates accountability among managers (since escalated complaints impact their bonuses) and shows supreme confidence to customers. Surprisingly, adding his number didn’t increase calls—it increased email feedback, as customers recognized his genuine commitment to service excellence.
So, are you treating complaints as costly nuisances—or as million-dollar opportunities to create brand evangelists?
Remember John’s advice to skeptical employees:
“Be naive, not paranoid.”
Trust your customers by default, and watch your business transform through the power of exceptional service recovery.
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Hi, I’m Marc Thomas, Founder and CEO of Current TEK Solutions and CYBER GUARDIANS. If you or someone you know could benefit from our cutting-edge IT and cybersecurity services, we’d love to help. Reach out to us today to learn how we can secure and elevate your business. https://www.currentTEKsolutions.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How has it affected customer service?
It's the greatest thing everBecause, like you said, if you
came in in the 90s and wedisappointed you, treated you
like crap, threw you out, wererude, how many people can you
tell?
But today you have a megaphoneand you video record me telling
you get the hell out of here ifyou don't like it and being rude
(00:24):
.
That could go viral.
It's the best thing that everhappened, because now shit
companies can't hide.
You know and what people sayabout you online, you know the
average is going to be true.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You touched a bit ago , talking about the 90s, and you
know if I had that badexperience and I have this toxic
eight, and how do you feel thatthe digital world we live in
today, right, there's so much,and I'm looking for my phone at
the moment and here it is.
You know, instantaneously, knowinstantaneously, I can express
(01:05):
myself and my experience withyour salon, right, which I
couldn't do in the nineties,right, how does that impact the
customer experience?
And knowing that, hey, if theywalk out of here, they can
either praise me or they canslay me.
And you know what do you do todeal with that, Especially if
(01:31):
it's a negative experience.
You know, it's one thing ifsomebody just doesn't come back,
or maybe they tell theirfriends not to go there, but,
man, instantly the world knowsabout it.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, you know, to me and I'm not talking about the
digital devices and social mediaI'm pinning yeah, there's a lot
of drawbacks with it, um, butif we keep it in just the lane,
you asked what?
How has it affected customerservice?
It's the greatest thing everbecause, like you said, if you
(02:04):
came in in the nineties and we,you know, disappointed you
treated you like crap, threw youout, were rude how many people
can you tell?
And you know, and back then,right, right, you know, you tell
your neighbors, you tell yourfriends, you'd eventually forget
about it until someone, maybeonce in a while, say, hey, I'm
thinking to, oh, no, no, that'sreally bad.
(02:25):
Right, but today you have amegaphone, yeah, and you could,
you know, especially, and youalso have a, not only a
megaphone, but you have a uh, uh, you know the, a camera, you
know the, the uh, what, the, theuh tv guys that used to carry
around the big cameras.
Sure, everyone is walkingaround with that big news camera
(02:47):
and if you video record metelling you get the hell out of
here if you don't like it, youknow, and you know being rude,
that could go viral.
So it was.
It's the best thing that everhappened, because now, shit,
companies can't hide, right,your Yelp scores scores not one
(03:07):
off, but your yelp scores aregoing to be, you know, true, if
you know, if you have 50 um, youknow and, and what people say
about you online, you know the,the average is going to be true
um and you can't hide.
And great companies will beexposed as well, which puts us
on, like you know, on stageconstantly, because if you're
(03:31):
calling and talking to acustomer service rep, you could
be recording, it be beingrecorded, just like you know,
and we work with law enforcement, but I do believe you know them
(03:53):
video recording every.
You know, engagement with acivilian is a great thing and I
think it's good for them,because now there's not the he
said, she said he called me,this, he, you know, was physical
with me.
Now there's proof and thatthere's proof.
There is, hopefully, you know,checks and balances and also
consideration of all right,maybe I'm not going to be as
aggressive or whatever that maybe, or the civilian can't lie
(04:17):
and say he or she was.
So I think it's great.
I think it's great, you know, Ilove it.
And this goes back to the zerorisk.
There's a service recovery, soso when you drop the ball and I
don't care if, if you're, ifyou're posting or you're not
posting, if you call up and sayI didn't like your presentation,
(04:40):
I didn't like your haircut,whatever business model is,
we're going to correct, we'regonna over correct, and that's
where most businesses fail.
Um, you know what do you mean?
Well, you know.
And then they make you justifyit and then you know don't
punish 98 of your customers forwhat you're afraid two percent
are going to get away with ortry to get away with.
(05:01):
I'm okay with getting takenadvantage of 2% of the time I
don't think I do.
Okay, but what?
98% can't believe how well wetook care of it.
You just call me up and you say, john, I was really
disappointed in you know, here'swhat we're going to do for you.
So so the three rules of, ofcorrecting, uh, uh, when
(05:24):
someone's upset, address itimmediately.
Okay, take blame andovercorrect.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So dress up immediately, take blame, so take
ownership of it, yep, and thenovercorrect.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, instead of saying, well, you know you
should have, and why did youwait a week and all that stuff.
Now you know there's going tobe people listening and saying,
well, you know, we got somepeople that do this.
You know, every week they, theybuy this can and they drink
three quarters of it and theysay it was no good and they want
a new one.
(06:00):
Okay, that's the one percentersand you could you could, you
know, have a a thing for them.
But if I've been coming to youand I never complain and today
I'm like, hey, this is flat,don't you know see how much I
drank, just say, oh, here'sanother one.
You know, I mean, handle it.
There's a service recoveryparadox.
(06:20):
That's very true.
It's probably happened to youin your life, on both sides of
the fence, definitely as aconsumer.
The service recovery paradox isif you go to do business with
someone and you have theseexpectations and they hit them,
they don't blow you away.
But you know, you come in andyou make reservations for
Tuesday night at seven o'clockand you walk in and they have
you down at seven o'clock andyou go, sit down and you have a
(06:42):
nice meal and you leave.
Okay, it's a nice thing.
You may.
You may go back, you may not,right, if you want that type of
food.
Whatever the service recoveryparadox is, if you go in and you
come in and you're like, hi,I'm here for my 7 o'clock
reservation and they're like, oh, we don't have you.
You're like what I called twodays ago no, I'm sorry, hold on,
(07:04):
let me see what we can do.
And they run around and theplace is packed and you're
talking to your wife.
You is packed and you'retalking to your wife.
You're like all right, whatelse is open right now?
Where can we get in on a Fridaynight at seven o'clock?
And they come back and saywe're so sorry, we did find you
a table.
It can be in the bar, is thatokay?
(07:24):
It's a little louder, you know,that's fine, as long as you get
it and they take care of thedinner, right?
Or they do something for you.
That's called the servicerecovery paradox, where you came
in expecting this and theybombed.
But they made it right, theyovercorrected.
Now you might be more loyal tothem than had nothing gone wrong
(07:47):
.
So you're like, wow, I trustthem.
Like they didn't say you know,are you sure?
You sure you have the rightnight, you know.
You know they didn't look tosee if you have resident.
They didn't blame you, theyjust said we are so sorry and
for your inconvenience.
We've comped a bottle of wineor we've comped this, or we're
going to give you dessert orwhatever.
(08:09):
And the manager came out heapologized for the inconvenience
or the miscommunication.
Right, you're more impressedwith them than so, like I,
actually like when we screw up,it's a sick day.
So I'll give you a reallyclassic example of this.
25 years ago, when I wasinvolved in the salons, um, I
(08:29):
had a rule and still the rule ifit gets to me, it's free, okay,
okay, and.
And it's still the rule.
If it gets to me, it's free,okay, Okay.
And, and it's not hard to getto me, my cell number is all
over the salon and the notesyeah, yeah.
And the note says uh, love toknow about your experience.
If we crushed it, please let meknow, so we can celebrate it.
(08:52):
If we miss the mark, please letme know, so we can celebrate it
.
If we missed the mark, pleaselet me know, so we can make it
right.
And then my email and myselfand so, so, uh, very few people
call me and, and when they do,I'm glad they did.
But people don't take advantageof it.
They're not calling me atmidnight.
They're not, you know, but butwhen they do, I'm glad they did
are they calling you for thecrushing it?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
are they usually calling you with an issue?
At what level?
They are Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
More are, and 99.9% email me.
Here's my personal email Okay,but if you need to call me, and
so let me tell you something.
Really, it's really coolpsychologically about this.
So I started this and just putmy email no cell.
And I got emails okay, I don'tknow, maybe five a month, and
(09:41):
four out of the five were hey.
I really want to tell you um,how I I I went to your salon for
the first time and this sandyand she was couldn't have been
nicer and oh my god, and what Idid.
And in four out of five.
So I got four greats and onewas yeah, it could have been
better.
So it gave me the opportunityto fix it.
Let the next experience be onme.
Blah, blah, blah.
(10:02):
For some reason, I wanted people.
I didn't feel I was gettingenough feedback, so I wanted
people to know I was serious.
So the only thing I changed wasI added my cell number.
You will get me A couple peoplejust called just to see if it
was really my cell.
I will tell you.
(10:25):
Here's the thing that happened Iwent from getting five emails a
month to probably 15.
No doubt, by putting my phonenumber, I didn't get more calls.
I mean, I got a few calls hereand there, but it just said man,
if this guy's willing to puthis personal cell number, he
really wants to know and I'mgoing to tell him.
And I just got more emails.
Okay so, but my thing was to mystaff was if it gets to me,
(10:49):
it's free, because no one wantsto call the owner, the general
manager, the vice president up.
You don't want to do that.
Let's say, you had a badexperience last night in a
restaurant and you're reallyupset.
You don't want to call thatrestaurant today and if you do,
you're mad.
And on top of that, if you'rethat mad, you know, and now you
(11:10):
get the general manager on thephone, you almost have to
embellish it because you'regetting them on the phone.
You're like, yeah, oh, my God,you wouldn't believe it.
So so I?
So I told my employees thatwhoever calls me, I'm not going
to argue with them.
Whatever they want, they get.
If it gets to me, it's free,and whatever they get is going
to come out of your quarterlybonus, the manager.
(11:31):
So my whole point was handle itat the salon level, because
when it gets escalated, peopleget really angry.
When they have to tell theirstory, two, three times.
They start remember, oh, youknow what.
This happened to me last year.
This isn't the first time andthey're telling other people and
I don't want that to happen.
So here's my story.
(11:52):
Someone called me 25 years agoand said Mr DeJulius, they, I
got my hair colored at yoursalon, at your Solon salon, and
they got color on my suit it's awoman suit jacket, which is
horrible because we're supposedto make you take off your, your,
(12:12):
your clothes and put a robe onfor that reason.
So we already screwed up.
I'm like, oh God.
And so I said can we get it?
Can we take it to the drycleaner, happy to pay for that?
She goes.
No, she goes.
I already tried, can't get itout, she goes and the suit is
worthless without the jacket andthey no longer sell the suit.
(12:38):
Yeah.
So I say, well, well, you know,can I send you a check for the
suit?
And she couldn't believe that.
She's like well, it's 270.
This is in the 90s.
She was it's like 275.
I said, can I send you a check?
And she was like you don't wantto know how now, you don't want
to know how old it is.
I said, no, she goes, you don'twant to see it.
Oh, she couldn't believe it.
(12:59):
Hum up, looked up her, her, herthing for her uh address to send
her a 275 check and I sent hera half hour massage for
inconvenience.
Now there's a little marketingon that end.
Okay, now what?
What we do and we probablystill do this is whenever we had
a, a wanted to give you know, a, a, a like a, an apology.
(13:24):
If we had a new massagetherapist, a new nail technician
, we'd always give you, as partof the recovery, uh a thing.
Here's a manicure with Amanda.
Amanda has no clients, so itkind of does us a favor too.
A it impresses you that we gaveit, but we're also getting
(13:45):
Amanda instead of her sittingaround all day doing nothing to
do.
She's doing these apology gifts,but she turned a lot of them
into clients.
It's a win-win.
We must have had a new massagetherapist at the time, because I
sent her a $275 check and ahalf hour massage for her
(14:07):
inconvenience.
I looked up her history andshe's been coming in.
She's been a client for threeyears.
She comes in six to seven timesa year.
Good client, never referredanybody.
So send her off this.
And about a year later I wascurious if we retained her and I
(14:27):
looked her up and in thefollowing 12 months she came in
seven more times.
I was like, yes, right, youknow we retained her.
Then I clicked on her referralsand she referred 18 new
customers for $275.
What advertising or marketcould I spend $275 and get 18
(14:50):
new customers?
So I tell my staff get color ineveryone's clothes.
But that's the point.
Own it, address it immediately.
Own it and over, correct?
Yeah, instead of getting into apissing match, uh, uh, you
should have taken off yourjacket or?
Uh, you know you don't likeyour haircut.
(15:12):
Well, it's been two weeks.
You know why didn't you?
If you didn't like your haircut, why didn't you come in the
next day?
I don't give a shit.
You know, give a free haircut.
Now, if this is the third timehe does this, yeah right, but
you have a bigger issue there.
Something, yeah, for sure, zerorisk, that's what, that's what
being zero risk is all right,awesome, I that's.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I'm going to uh think about that one a little bit, a
little bit more in futureinteractions.
That's for sure right, becauseyeah, yeah, yeah, I could see
that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
So, john a lot of times like, like I have an
employee, I have a lot ofemployees that they'll, because
where they they previouslyworked, they were programmed not
to trust the customer andthey're protecting the business,
right, sure, yeah, and I can'tblame them, because they are
thinking the business is gettingtaken advantage of them.
(16:06):
So it's really a hard habit tobreak.
I say no, lindsay, it's okay,like I'm okay, trust them.
I want you to be naive, notparanoid.
Okay, you know, and so you know, lindsay, this is the first
time.
You know.
Mark's been coming here for twoyears.
(16:26):
He orders books from us everytime he hires new employees.
If he says this time that youknow he ordered 30 and he only
got 20, send him another 20.
Don't send him the 10, send him20, right, mark doesn't have a
pattern.
He's been a good customer foryears and this is for I.
(16:47):
Send him 20.
Don't send him the 10, because10 would make it right.
Send him the 20 because I wanthis mind to be blown right.
It's an opportunity to be ahero to him.
Actually, don't send him.
Drive those books over if he'sin Northeast Ohio.
But that's the thing, versus no, john, I have a receipt here
that says it was a case of books.
(17:08):
That case of books is 30.
It's okay, linz, even if youknow I'm sure he's not doing it
on purpose.
Maybe they got lost, maybe UPSlost the debt, but he has
history with us.
He's never tried to takeadvantage of us.
Be naive, hi.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech
Solutions and Cyber Guardians.
We know business owners likeyou want to focus on growing
your company, not worrying aboutIT problems or security threats
.
That's where we come in.
Our team uses AI to protectyour business from cyber risks
and keep everything runningsmoothly.
If you're ready for peace ofmind and a stronger future,
(17:47):
reach out to us today.
Let's secure and elevate yourbusiness together.
Outro Music.
How has it affected customer service?
It's the greatest thing everBecause, like you said, if you
came in in the 90s and wedisappointed you, treated you
like crap, threw you out, wererude, how many people can you
tell?
But today you have a megaphoneand you video record me telling
you get the hell out of here ifyou don't like it and being rude
(00:24):
.
That could go viral.
It's the best thing that everhappened, because now shit
companies can't hide.
You know and what people sayabout you online, you know the
average is going to be true.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You touched a bit ago , talking about the 90s, and you
know if I had that badexperience and I have this toxic
eight, and how do you feel thatthe digital world we live in
today, right, there's so much,and I'm looking for my phone at
the moment and here it is.
You know, instantaneously, knowinstantaneously, I can express
(01:05):
myself and my experience withyour salon, right, which I
couldn't do in the nineties,right, how does that impact the
customer experience?
And knowing that, hey, if theywalk out of here, they can
either praise me or they canslay me.
And you know what do you do todeal with that, Especially if
(01:31):
it's a negative experience.
You know, it's one thing ifsomebody just doesn't come back,
or maybe they tell theirfriends not to go there, but,
man, instantly the world knowsabout it.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, you know, to me and I'm not talking about the
digital devices and social mediaI'm pinning yeah, there's a lot
of drawbacks with it, um, butif we keep it in just the lane,
you asked what?
How has it affected customerservice?
It's the greatest thing everbecause, like you said, if you
(02:04):
came in in the nineties and we,you know, disappointed you
treated you like crap, threw youout, were rude how many people
can you tell?
And you know, and back then,right, right, you know, you tell
your neighbors, you tell yourfriends, you'd eventually forget
about it until someone, maybeonce in a while, say, hey, I'm
thinking to, oh, no, no, that'sreally bad.
(02:25):
Right, but today you have amegaphone, yeah, and you could,
you know, especially, and youalso have a, not only a
megaphone, but you have a uh, uh, you know the, a camera, you
know the, the uh, what, the, theuh tv guys that used to carry
around the big cameras.
Sure, everyone is walkingaround with that big news camera
(02:47):
and if you video record metelling you get the hell out of
here if you don't like it, youknow, and you know being rude,
that could go viral.
So it was.
It's the best thing that everhappened, because now, shit,
companies can't hide, right,your Yelp scores scores not one
(03:07):
off, but your yelp scores aregoing to be, you know, true, if
you know, if you have 50 um, youknow and, and what people say
about you online, you know the,the average is going to be true
um and you can't hide.
And great companies will beexposed as well, which puts us
on, like you know, on stageconstantly, because if you're
(03:31):
calling and talking to acustomer service rep, you could
be recording, it be beingrecorded, just like you know,
and we work with law enforcement, but I do believe you know them
(03:53):
video recording every.
You know, engagement with acivilian is a great thing and I
think it's good for them,because now there's not the he
said, she said he called me,this, he, you know, was physical
with me.
Now there's proof and thatthere's proof.
There is, hopefully, you know,checks and balances and also
consideration of all right,maybe I'm not going to be as
aggressive or whatever that maybe, or the civilian can't lie
(04:17):
and say he or she was.
So I think it's great.
I think it's great, you know, Ilove it.
And this goes back to the zerorisk.
There's a service recovery, soso when you drop the ball and I
don't care if, if you're, ifyou're posting or you're not
posting, if you call up and sayI didn't like your presentation,
(04:40):
I didn't like your haircut,whatever business model is,
we're going to correct, we'regonna over correct, and that's
where most businesses fail.
Um, you know what do you mean?
Well, you know.
And then they make you justifyit and then you know don't
punish 98 of your customers forwhat you're afraid two percent
are going to get away with ortry to get away with.
(05:01):
I'm okay with getting takenadvantage of 2% of the time I
don't think I do.
Okay, but what?
98% can't believe how well wetook care of it.
You just call me up and you say, john, I was really
disappointed in you know, here'swhat we're going to do for you.
So so the three rules of, ofcorrecting, uh, uh, when
(05:24):
someone's upset, address itimmediately.
Okay, take blame andovercorrect.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So dress up immediately, take blame, so take
ownership of it, yep, and thenovercorrect.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Yeah, instead of saying, well, you know you
should have, and why did youwait a week and all that stuff.
Now you know there's going tobe people listening and saying,
well, you know, we got somepeople that do this.
You know, every week they, theybuy this can and they drink
three quarters of it and theysay it was no good and they want
a new one.
(06:00):
Okay, that's the one percentersand you could you could, you
know, have a a thing for them.
But if I've been coming to youand I never complain and today
I'm like, hey, this is flat,don't you know see how much I
drank, just say, oh, here'sanother one.
You know, I mean, handle it.
There's a service recoveryparadox.
(06:20):
That's very true.
It's probably happened to youin your life, on both sides of
the fence, definitely as aconsumer.
The service recovery paradox isif you go to do business with
someone and you have theseexpectations and they hit them,
they don't blow you away.
But you know, you come in andyou make reservations for
Tuesday night at seven o'clockand you walk in and they have
you down at seven o'clock andyou go, sit down and you have a
(06:42):
nice meal and you leave.
Okay, it's a nice thing.
You may.
You may go back, you may not,right, if you want that type of
food.
Whatever the service recoveryparadox is, if you go in and you
come in and you're like, hi,I'm here for my 7 o'clock
reservation and they're like, oh, we don't have you.
You're like what I called twodays ago no, I'm sorry, hold on,
(07:04):
let me see what we can do.
And they run around and theplace is packed and you're
talking to your wife.
You is packed and you'retalking to your wife.
You're like all right, whatelse is open right now?
Where can we get in on a Fridaynight at seven o'clock?
And they come back and saywe're so sorry, we did find you
a table.
It can be in the bar, is thatokay?
(07:24):
It's a little louder, you know,that's fine, as long as you get
it and they take care of thedinner, right?
Or they do something for you.
That's called the servicerecovery paradox, where you came
in expecting this and theybombed.
But they made it right, theyovercorrected.
Now you might be more loyal tothem than had nothing gone wrong
(07:47):
.
So you're like, wow, I trustthem.
Like they didn't say you know,are you sure?
You sure you have the rightnight, you know.
You know they didn't look tosee if you have resident.
They didn't blame you, theyjust said we are so sorry and
for your inconvenience.
We've comped a bottle of wineor we've comped this, or we're
going to give you dessert orwhatever.
(08:09):
And the manager came out heapologized for the inconvenience
or the miscommunication.
Right, you're more impressedwith them than so, like I,
actually like when we screw up,it's a sick day.
So I'll give you a reallyclassic example of this.
25 years ago, when I wasinvolved in the salons, um, I
(08:29):
had a rule and still the rule ifit gets to me, it's free, okay,
okay, and.
And it's still the rule.
If it gets to me, it's free,okay, Okay.
And, and it's not hard to getto me, my cell number is all
over the salon and the notesyeah, yeah.
And the note says uh, love toknow about your experience.
If we crushed it, please let meknow, so we can celebrate it.
(08:52):
If we miss the mark, please letme know, so we can celebrate it
.
If we missed the mark, pleaselet me know, so we can make it
right.
And then my email and myselfand so, so, uh, very few people
call me and, and when they do,I'm glad they did.
But people don't take advantageof it.
They're not calling me atmidnight.
They're not, you know, but butwhen they do, I'm glad they did
are they calling you for thecrushing it?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
are they usually calling you with an issue?
At what level?
They are Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
More are, and 99.9% email me.
Here's my personal email Okay,but if you need to call me, and
so let me tell you something.
Really, it's really coolpsychologically about this.
So I started this and just putmy email no cell.
And I got emails okay, I don'tknow, maybe five a month, and
(09:41):
four out of the five were hey.
I really want to tell you um,how I I I went to your salon for
the first time and this sandyand she was couldn't have been
nicer and oh my god, and what Idid.
And in four out of five.
So I got four greats and onewas yeah, it could have been
better.
So it gave me the opportunityto fix it.
Let the next experience be onme.
Blah, blah, blah.
(10:02):
For some reason, I wanted people.
I didn't feel I was gettingenough feedback, so I wanted
people to know I was serious.
So the only thing I changed wasI added my cell number.
You will get me A couple peoplejust called just to see if it
was really my cell.
I will tell you.
(10:25):
Here's the thing that happened Iwent from getting five emails a
month to probably 15.
No doubt, by putting my phonenumber, I didn't get more calls.
I mean, I got a few calls hereand there, but it just said man,
if this guy's willing to puthis personal cell number, he
really wants to know and I'mgoing to tell him.
And I just got more emails.
Okay so, but my thing was to mystaff was if it gets to me,
(10:49):
it's free, because no one wantsto call the owner, the general
manager, the vice president up.
You don't want to do that.
Let's say, you had a badexperience last night in a
restaurant and you're reallyupset.
You don't want to call thatrestaurant today and if you do,
you're mad.
And on top of that, if you'rethat mad, you know, and now you
(11:10):
get the general manager on thephone, you almost have to
embellish it because you'regetting them on the phone.
You're like, yeah, oh, my God,you wouldn't believe it.
So so I?
So I told my employees thatwhoever calls me, I'm not going
to argue with them.
Whatever they want, they get.
If it gets to me, it's free,and whatever they get is going
to come out of your quarterlybonus, the manager.
(11:31):
So my whole point was handle itat the salon level, because
when it gets escalated, peopleget really angry.
When they have to tell theirstory, two, three times.
They start remember, oh, youknow what.
This happened to me last year.
This isn't the first time andthey're telling other people and
I don't want that to happen.
So here's my story.
(11:52):
Someone called me 25 years agoand said Mr DeJulius, they, I
got my hair colored at yoursalon, at your Solon salon, and
they got color on my suit it's awoman suit jacket, which is
horrible because we're supposedto make you take off your, your,
(12:12):
your clothes and put a robe onfor that reason.
So we already screwed up.
I'm like, oh God.
And so I said can we get it?
Can we take it to the drycleaner, happy to pay for that?
She goes.
No, she goes.
I already tried, can't get itout, she goes and the suit is
worthless without the jacket andthey no longer sell the suit.
(12:38):
Yeah.
So I say, well, well, you know,can I send you a check for the
suit?
And she couldn't believe that.
She's like well, it's 270.
This is in the 90s.
She was it's like 275.
I said, can I send you a check?
And she was like you don't wantto know how now, you don't want
to know how old it is.
I said, no, she goes, you don'twant to see it.
Oh, she couldn't believe it.
(12:59):
Hum up, looked up her, her, herthing for her uh address to send
her a 275 check and I sent hera half hour massage for
inconvenience.
Now there's a little marketingon that end.
Okay, now what?
What we do and we probablystill do this is whenever we had
a, a wanted to give you know, a, a, a like a, an apology.
(13:24):
If we had a new massagetherapist, a new nail technician
, we'd always give you, as partof the recovery, uh a thing.
Here's a manicure with Amanda.
Amanda has no clients, so itkind of does us a favor too.
A it impresses you that we gaveit, but we're also getting
(13:45):
Amanda instead of her sittingaround all day doing nothing to
do.
She's doing these apology gifts,but she turned a lot of them
into clients.
It's a win-win.
We must have had a new massagetherapist at the time, because I
sent her a $275 check and ahalf hour massage for her
(14:07):
inconvenience.
I looked up her history andshe's been coming in.
She's been a client for threeyears.
She comes in six to seven timesa year.
Good client, never referredanybody.
So send her off this.
And about a year later I wascurious if we retained her and I
(14:27):
looked her up and in thefollowing 12 months she came in
seven more times.
I was like, yes, right, youknow we retained her.
Then I clicked on her referralsand she referred 18 new
customers for $275.
What advertising or marketcould I spend $275 and get 18
(14:50):
new customers?
So I tell my staff get color ineveryone's clothes.
But that's the point.
Own it, address it immediately.
Own it and over, correct?
Yeah, instead of getting into apissing match, uh, uh, you
should have taken off yourjacket or?
Uh, you know you don't likeyour haircut.
(15:12):
Well, it's been two weeks.
You know why didn't you?
If you didn't like your haircut, why didn't you come in the
next day?
I don't give a shit.
You know, give a free haircut.
Now, if this is the third timehe does this, yeah right, but
you have a bigger issue there.
Something, yeah, for sure, zerorisk, that's what, that's what
being zero risk is all right,awesome, I that's.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I'm going to uh think about that one a little bit, a
little bit more in futureinteractions.
That's for sure right, becauseyeah, yeah, yeah, I could see
that.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
So, john a lot of times like, like I have an
employee, I have a lot ofemployees that they'll, because
where they they previouslyworked, they were programmed not
to trust the customer andthey're protecting the business,
right, sure, yeah, and I can'tblame them, because they are
thinking the business is gettingtaken advantage of them.
(16:06):
So it's really a hard habit tobreak.
I say no, lindsay, it's okay,like I'm okay, trust them.
I want you to be naive, notparanoid.
Okay, you know, and so you know, lindsay, this is the first
time.
You know.
Mark's been coming here for twoyears.
(16:26):
He orders books from us everytime he hires new employees.
If he says this time that youknow he ordered 30 and he only
got 20, send him another 20.
Don't send him the 10, send him20, right, mark doesn't have a
pattern.
He's been a good customer foryears and this is for I.
(16:47):
Send him 20.
Don't send him the 10, because10 would make it right.
Send him the 20 because I wanthis mind to be blown right.
It's an opportunity to be ahero to him.
Actually, don't send him.
Drive those books over if he'sin Northeast Ohio.
But that's the thing, versus no, john, I have a receipt here
that says it was a case of books.
(17:08):
That case of books is 30.
It's okay, linz, even if youknow I'm sure he's not doing it
on purpose.
Maybe they got lost, maybe UPSlost the debt, but he has
history with us.
He's never tried to takeadvantage of us.
Be naive, hi.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
I'm Mark Thomas, founder and CEO of Current Tech
Solutions and Cyber Guardians.
We know business owners likeyou want to focus on growing
your company, not worrying aboutIT problems or security threats
.
That's where we come in.
Our team uses AI to protectyour business from cyber risks
and keep everything runningsmoothly.
If you're ready for peace ofmind and a stronger future,
(17:47):
reach out to us today.
Let's secure and elevate yourbusiness together.
Outro Music.
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