There are always chances to sell more to the customer who has purchased something from you

I want to pass on a couple of experiences I had when holidaying in the South Island..

We did a shop at New World, Nelson and received the usual barrage of paper at the checkout.  I always go through those, normally looking for the petrol discount voucher.  This time, though I was delighted to see a separate slip which thanked us for spending $100 and offering us a free muffin or scone at the in store café.  Naturally, being muffin lovers, we took advantage of the offer and also purchased two cups of coffee to go with our shared muffin.

How easy was that for New World to impress their customer? – and probably at no cost.  I am sure that the profit on the coffee would have offset the cost of the muffin.  But even if we hadn’t bought the coffee, the opportunity taken by the store to offer a reward for spending $100 will ensure loyalty from many customers.  So, what can you do to create and maintain a loyal customer base?

Sadly there was an opportunity lost when we did The Denniston Experience on the West Coast.  It was without doubt one of the best tourism experiences I have ever had in New Zealand.  But our tour of the disused coal mine and the assimilated jobs we all took part in, ended with a mere walk back to the car park.

The point here is that there could (and from my perspective, should) have been a souvenir stall set up at the train station when we returned from the mine.  Everyone I have spoken to who have done the tour have given rave reviews.  So it is a pity that the operators did not take the opportunity to extract a few more dollars from us in the form of caps, tee shirts, key rings, fridge magnets, and the like.  When you have a good product, and your customers are transitional, then you need to take every opportunity to add on sell while they are on the premises.