Are you throwing away the “Wow”?

February 18, 2013

We were excited as we pulled into the drive after a long day – after work we had to attend an event and eventually we were on the way home ..after midnight!

That day we knew the new carpets that we had ordered were laid and we were nervously looking forward to seeing our home transformed – the old carpets had been there for over 12 years and it was time for a change ..

After picking the carpets in the showroom you can never be quite sure if what you picked out actually does in fact work with the colours in the house – we were nervous but we were hoping that the little investment would be worth it and our home would be transformed for the better.

We opened the front door and switched on the hall lights ….

A wall of upset hit both of us as we saw the mess everywhere – the carpets were installed but the fitters had left the place like a bomb hit it. There were carpet cuttings everywhere, loose pieces of carpet, nails, broken grips. The fitters had stormed through the house moving furniture from one room to the other and returning them randomly, there was a pile of rubbish in the corner of the bedroom and the bedside lockers were stacked in the bathroom.

We couldn’t close the bedroom door because the carpet was a deeper pile – who would leave it without being able to close the door? We felt like the place had been violated, people had been in our home who didn’t give a damn how they left the place – nearly as if robbers had been through the place.

We were raging and really very upset. I wanted to just return all of the carpets – Dee just wanted to go to bed but I knew I couldn’t face the mess in the morning and carry this horrible feeling into another day.

I started tidying, gathering up the nails, the loose pieces of carpet and I hoovered the whole place with Dee’s help. Miraculously after about 40 minutes the place transformed and we were able to see that the carpet was in fact gorgeous and despite our initial feelings it looked like the carpets were fitted really well!

We didn’t want this crew back in our home so we agreed to ask a friend in the morning to sort the door problem.

With just a little bit of extra care and attention and a quick tidy up, the carpet fitters could have easily delivered us a huge “Wow” but instead they carelessly threw this away and destroyed a great customer experience.

Sometimes when we are operating to tight budgets do we end up throwing away the valuable “wow” that ends up costing us a lot more in real terms?

The “wow” is the most important part of the whole transaction – don’t throw it away?

Greg Canty is a partner of Fuzion