What is the worth of a customer?

Two experience this weekend left me thinking that some businesses still don’t understand the worth of customer.

Experience #1: Kim had her eyes checked a few months back and ended up buying some new glasses. The glasses arrive nearly 5 weeks later. One big problem though: The glasses are not the right prescription. Kim makes an appointment to get eyes checked again but the appointment has to be postponed when she travels to Utah on vacation. By the time the appointment can be rescheduled she’s out of the 90 day return policy window which starts the day the glasses were ordered not the day she received them. The end result is that today she finally got new lenses to the tune of an extra $115 on top of the price we already paid for the glasses and exam. Needless to say the worth of of a customer to this business is less than $115. Our family of five will find another Optometrist when we are in the market for glasses or contacts.

Experience #2: I purchased a car stereo a few months ago. I went to Car Toys and told the salesman I wanted a deck that was compatible with my iPod. He showed me a few decks and ended up having an Alpine model installed. I love the sound of the stereo, but I’m not sure how it hooks up to my iPod so I make a call to Car Toys and this same salesman tells me I need to purchase the iPod adapter. So I make another trip across town to purchase the $40 adapter thinking it just plugs in the front of the receiver. I made the mistake of not asking him how it works and head back home. It’s not obvious where I plug in this adapter so I get on the web and go to the Alpine stereo website and find my model. It shows the deck hooked up to an iPod but it’s now clear to me that it’s not something I can install. This should have been installed when the deck was put in. So I call back to Car Toys and am told they can install the adapter for $70. I tell him my story pointing out my main reason for getting the stereo installed in the first place so I could listen to my iPod. I ask him why this adapter requirement wasn’t explained to me when I first inquired about a new deck in the first place. His response, “Can you look at your receipt and call me back with the name of your salesman? I hope it wasn’t me”. I’m not sure what this will accomplish but this tells me my worth to Car Toys is less than $70.