For The Best Customer Experience, Buy Local

Larry Freed, who was our speaker at the November Leaders Connect event (see the video HERE if you missed it) has made a career on measuring customer satisfaction. He has found that a satisfying customer experience is the best driver for business revenue growth. His company, Foresee, developed a key performance indicator: the Word of Mouth Index (WoMI), which measures a customer’s likelihood to be a promoter or detractor for a business. (For further explanation, please see his book “Innovating Analytics”)

Based on Larry’s talk, I realized that we are likely to have our best customer experience when we buy locally. Not only is buying great fun, but we directly help our economy by keeping our money in the community. This past Saturday, I shopped locally in Ann Arbor and loved the experience. I highly recommend several place I shopped or dined at. Here are the places:

1. I started with Hippie Hash from an old time favorite, the Fleetwood Diner. Thanks to our waitress, Jenna, who treated us like royalty.
2. Then it was on to the downtown Sweetwaters, the best place to meet friends and chat. My brother-in-law, Phil, loved his mocha which was topped with whipped cream and chocolate drizzle.
3. Literatie Book Store was next. I was just browsing, but was warmly greeted by Hilary Gustafson who asked me to be a guest book seller on November 29th, as a local part of a promotion to pair local authors with local readers.
4. On to Today’s Clothing on the newly swank Fourth Ave (it used to be a porn strip). I got a bargain from the owner, Eric, on a beautiful sports coat I had been coveting for several weeks.
5. Next I walked to the Birkenstock store on 4th, where the proprietor, Mr. Tinkerhess, has been teaching me Chi Walking.
6. Then we had fun at Mud Puddles, where we bought our granddaughter, Ada, blocks and cool balls.
7. Then a real great experience, as I bought some cool gifts from Mary Cambruzzi at The Found Gallery. Mary had followed up on an idea I had for them to carry journals. Of course I bought several. Also, I bought some candles from a candle maker from my home town of Ferndale. Finally, I bought Phil a birthday gift- a robot made from old TV and radio parts (made in Ann Arbor).
8. We ended up at Zingerman’s Next Door, where we had great lattes.

In all 8 places, I met the owners, was treated with care and respect, and had fun shopping- something I have not experienced at the mall or online.

So this holiday season, have fun and spend your money wisely by shopping locally.

Please share with me your feedback and your favorite local shopping experiences, in the comments section below.