8 Customer Service Lessons I Learned from ‘The Grocer’s Son’
When Antoine’s father has a stroke, Antoine – the prodigal son – reluctantly returns from life in the city to his rural French village and takes over the family store.
None-too-happy to be time-warped to the past from which he’d tried to escape, the surly Antoine drives his father’s grocery van around the sparsely-populated countryside, delivering groceries to the area’s senior citizens.
As he makes his daily rounds, Antoine learns valuable lessons about life, customer service, and closing sales:
1. Offer eye-candy.
Antoine paints his white van bright, cheerful colors. The curious seniors emerge from their homes, anxious to discover what this new phenomenon is all about.
2. Grab opportunities.
When a customer foists free kittens on him, Antoine gives the cuddly balls of fur to his customers… and reminds them to purchase milk for their new pet.
3. Offer second chances.
When some of his customers say, “I can’t afford to pay you today; put it on my tab,” Antoine extends them grace.
4. Give of yourself when your customer least expects it.
When Antoine notices the door on his customer’s chicken coop is ruined, he fixes it. And he doesn’t expect any favors in return.
5. Listen.
Rather than talking constantly, Antoine lets his customers do the talking. He silently notes his customers’ likes and dislikes, and stocks his shelves accordingly.
6. Don’t let quirky customers de-rail you.
Antoine encounters more than a few difficult customers during his daily rounds. Rather than allowing personality conflicts to defeat him, Antoine learns creative ways to work around them.
7. Small gifts count.
When Antoine discovers that his would-be girlfriend had a special craving for cottage cheese, he sends her some as a gift.
8. Work hard.
Antoine works harder than he’s ever worked in his life at that little grocery, with little hope of monetary compensation. In the end, his strong work ethic pays off (I won’t tell you how, in case you want to watch the DVD).
Which of these lessons do you most need to work on?
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