I was working for IBM as Country Brand Manager for Mobiles (Thinkpad) when Lou Gerstner was Chairman. He didn't want just satisfied customers, rather delighted ones. We had some discretion regarding how we'd do our jobs.
One day I get a phone call from a gent on vacation in Israel down south in the Red Sea city of Eilat. He asked where we had a dealer near him, as his power supply died and if he couldn't stay in touch with the office, he'd have to cut his family's vacation short and fly home. I took his details, and proceeded to courier a power supply to him from Tel Aviv, telling him to mail it back to me when he got home.
A couple of weeks later, I received a package with my power supply, a oversized box of butterscotch candies and a gold cross pen with the company's logo and a letter of thanks.
Unknown to me at the time I sent him the rescue package, the gent was the Chairman and CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation, who wrote me that I turned him and his company into a forever customer of IBM.
Thanks Richard for sharing the story. Good on you and it is amazing what a small gesture can do to great loyalty. Thanks for reading and taking the time to share. Powerful example
"Minimum viable flywheel." Love it, been thinking a ton about flywheels recently and how important the concept is for establishing real enterprise value. Great post Todd, going in our newsletter bookmarks this week.
I was working for IBM as Country Brand Manager for Mobiles (Thinkpad) when Lou Gerstner was Chairman. He didn't want just satisfied customers, rather delighted ones. We had some discretion regarding how we'd do our jobs.
One day I get a phone call from a gent on vacation in Israel down south in the Red Sea city of Eilat. He asked where we had a dealer near him, as his power supply died and if he couldn't stay in touch with the office, he'd have to cut his family's vacation short and fly home. I took his details, and proceeded to courier a power supply to him from Tel Aviv, telling him to mail it back to me when he got home.
A couple of weeks later, I received a package with my power supply, a oversized box of butterscotch candies and a gold cross pen with the company's logo and a letter of thanks.
Unknown to me at the time I sent him the rescue package, the gent was the Chairman and CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation, who wrote me that I turned him and his company into a forever customer of IBM.
Thanks Richard for sharing the story. Good on you and it is amazing what a small gesture can do to great loyalty. Thanks for reading and taking the time to share. Powerful example
"Minimum viable flywheel." Love it, been thinking a ton about flywheels recently and how important the concept is for establishing real enterprise value. Great post Todd, going in our newsletter bookmarks this week.
Thanks Andrew. Appreciate the comment and glad it resonated with you.