Ethical staff makes customer happy OR how I didn’t lose eighty bucks

A slightly different post – but one I’d like to share.

A long time ago (about when I moved out from my parents) I decided that I’d outsource the cleaning & ironing of my shirts. Dry cleaning companies offer this service and in exchange for washing and ironing your shirts you’ll pay a few bucks. So being a creature of habit every Saturday I bring in seven dirty shirts and pick up seven clean ones in return.

Paying mostly with cash

I don’t like to pay with debit or credit cards, so mostly I carry some cash to take care of most of my daily expenses. The rationale is slightly paranoid, there’s this unsettling fear that I’ll end up at the front of a queue in a shop and for some reason none of my cards work. A problem one never faces with cash.

The dangers of a pocket

The breast pocket of a shirt is a tricky part of any garment. Various style advocates rule them as out of fashion, but the real danger lies in forgetting things inside your pocket. Those of you who have ever washed a pair of jeans and had forgotten a pack of cigarettes or paper tissues in a back pocket are well aware of the dangers.

Pleasant surprises

When I returned to the dry-cleaning counter of Migros (the leading Swiss retail company), the lady takes my dirty shirts and the receipt for the clean ones. As always I’d head into the store to pickup some groceries, while they search for my fresh shirts somewhere on the large rack. When I came back the lady smiles at me and hands me a plastic bag, telling me the cleaner found this in my shirt pocket. To my very pleasant surprise – it was 80 Swiss francs I must have forgotten in my breast pocket.

Ethical staff makes customers happy

I was very grateful! My customer satisfaction went through the roof. How easy had it been for these few bills to disappear somewhere along the way? There is some literature (summary), which suggest a strong tie between ethical company behavior and strong customer relationships. I can only say that I felt very grateful (left a finder’s fee) for the customer service, ethical behavior and kindness of the employees. Thank you Migros and thank you to the friendly faces behind the counter! It seems that the company’s ethics are lived by the employees and make customers happy.