Free money

For this assignment I will go to different venues where people are gathered and typically busy with other things.  I am staying at hotel this weekend so I will use someone there, drive-thru window, a kids play area, someone walking down the street, and an organized function.  The people I will approach will be based on which location I see them at such as a parent at the play area, whoever gives me my food at the drive thru, a parent at the organized event, a guest at the hotel, and the person in the street will be random.  I will start the conversation with excuse me or hello.  I will keep it short and to the point.  I noticed that when dealing with customers it is best to be direct and straight forward.  And that is what I intend on doing.  My goal will be to have each encounter last less than 20 seconds.  I do think that I will give away all five dollars.  My reflections on the exercise are not positive.  I did not feel that this is a good example of delivering value to a customer.  Customer service and value is very different than giving something away to a customer.  In fact, I feel that a lot business get problem solving and customer service mixed up or consider them the same thing and will in turn start to cause problems later down the road.  Providing good customer service has nothing to do with monetary value it is about making that person feel special.  For instance something as simple as walking to the bathroom when they ask where it is instead of just pointing.  Knowing if that need a radio replaced in their vehicle great customer service would be writing down their saved presets and then after the new radio is put in programing them back in for the customer.  These things don’t cost any money and will make a profoundly deeper and more memorable impact then discounting the cost of something.  Giving the dollar was about what I thought it would be.  It was quick and ran into very little resistance.  I did not give all 5 away though.  The parent at the kids play center did turn me down, but I was not surprised.  In that setting parents are typically on a little higher alert and less trusting.