Are you building equity with your customers? Let me explain a personal story that just happened yesterday.

My wife and I go to a chiropractor because we have back pain issues now and then. This is due to us running and working out which sometimes causes our backs to go out of alignment. We’ve been going to this chiropractor for a couple months, and we drive about 15 minutes to get to her. We pass numerous chiropractors on the way. Now, why do we go to her? It is because I believe her method of chiropractory is superior to other chiropractors.

Now, let me take a bit of a detour here. Why do I believe this? Because when I was a kid playing football I had gone to this type of chiropractor — my parents took me. So it isn’t like she educated me on this fact, I just did research a few years ago when I started to have back issue again.

Anyway, back to the story. So, we drive about 15 minutes to see her. We usually go on a Friday, which tends to be a busy day for us. This particular Friday we have another appointment scheduled right after our visit. Now, it shouldn’t take that long at all at the chiropractor, and normally she is pretty good about being on time. We’ve gone about 5 times, and each time I would rate the experience as “satisfied.”

Well, this particular time I was not happy. First, my wife and I waited approximately 25-30 minutes even before I was seen. There is never any good reading material in the waiting room (which isn’t a problem for me or my wife since we always have work to do that we carry with us, or books to read–but most people just sit there staring into oblivion). After waiting for half an hour, I was sent back to the room where I waited longer. When the chiropractor finally came in she did apologize for running behind. The receptionist/secretary, however, never once apologized, never offered to get me anything to drink, or a snack, or even acknowledged that they were running behind. No estimate of how long the wait would be. Nothing.

Okay, so it does get a little worse, but let me continue. So, I go to my appointment and then my wife goes. I go outside since, for the first time in a long time, we have really nice weather outside to wait for my wife. When my wife comes out I say that I am close to looking for another chiropractor. She adds that the receptionist was difficult in wanting to turn this into insurance. Now let me explain that most of the time we pay in cash because our insurance deductible for chiropractor is about the same as our payment. But she had to ask the receptionists like 2 or 3 times to turn this in, and each time the receptionist tried to talk her out of it. It was like the receptionist was lazy. And that really irks me because we’re the customers, which means that we have a choice…and get this, “You work for us!”

Finally, let me also say this: We had an appointment to go to next, and all of this caused us to be late. So this put me in a negative frame of mind for the next appointment.

Okay, so let’s look into this experience a bit and just a few little things that could be done differently.

1) There was no true or meaningful acknowledgment or apology of our time being wasted. Actions speak louder than words. She did, briefly, apologize, but so what. All she would have had to do is do an action. Perhaps a $5 discount, and honestly, that would have made me happy. In fact, I would have been in a better mood and probably told me something like, “My chiropractor isn’t perfect, but when she was running late she discounted my bill.” Instant differentiation!

2) There was no estimation of how long it would take for us to see the chiropractor. The receptionist was not a welcoming host. She ignored us and really was not friendly at all.

Now, I seriously have a feeling of not wanting to go again to this chiropractor. My mood before going up until now was “neutral.” I wasn’t looking forward to going, it was just neutral–something I had to do. Now I am negative in that I am not wanting to go because I expect to be in a worse mood after going.

Please understand this: My brain is looking for reasons to switch, or to find someone else.

Now here’s a key point. She doesn’t have what I call, “equity” with us. Up until now she simply did what she was supposed to do — which is actually something in these days — but nothing beyond that. Nothing to differentiate her.

No educate on tips to help my health, no offering of a drink, no free bonuses, no pillow, no loyalty points, no follow-up, no thank you notes, etc. Nothing.

She also doesn’t know how

1) far we drive
2) why we chose her versus anyone and everyone else.

Simple, simple tweaks could really enhance her business.

And the worst most dangerous part. She never gives us a survey or asks for any type of feedback. Ever.

So, unless she stumbles across this blog, she will not know how my wife and I felt about our last experience.
And that is the most dangerous part because if she did know, she could do something about it. Feedback is essential. And you know what, don’t mistake me for some type of miser that is always looking for what is wrong. I’m a pretty easy-going guy. But she didn’t have “good-will” equity with us.

So here are some things she could do, instantly, and inexpensively, that would create equity. Some of these are for our perception of her, some of them is for her info which she could use for us.

1) Thank you note after we came the first time.
2) Monthly newsletter with tips/education on how to avoid pain, etc. Diet tips?
3) Free water/small refreshments in waiting area
4) A decent selection of reading material for those people who are waiting
5) A guarantee on how long an appointment would take, or our bill is discounted

A) Asking how far we came to her
B) Why we chose her
C) if we have any concerns or questions
D) a survey
E) questions on our diet(s)
F) sleeping habits

Now does she have to do all of these, nope!

But if there is one thing I want you to understand is this: People, even myself, and even I REALIZE this, are not logical or rational creatures. We make decisions on emotions and perceptions and then rationalize them with logic to justify these emotions.

But in this case I had a negative emotionalexperience. Will I leave her, probably not. But if she would have had more “good will” or equity, or had other value added benefits I would have certainly not been as disappointed. So, add things to your business and make yourself more valuable. Especially in this economy. Do more! Do more than people expect. To begin with just make a crazy list of anything and everything you could do to make people happy. And then make a list of everything that people generally hate dealing with in your industry. So if it is wait times, either eliminate them, or discount if they do wait. If it is insurance, figure that out. If it is confusion, create a simple process.

The point is once you get going it is pretty simple, but remember this: Everything is an emotional experience.

If anyone has any questions, I’d be glad to help.

-Matt