Marketing lesson from an Optometrist

I visited the Optometrist yesterday to have my spectacles adjusted.  The exercise took only a few minutes.  I was in and out quickly and it cost me nothing.  Zero.  Zilch.  Nada.  And I got a new case to replace my grungy old one, also at the same price.  And this retailer, Optometrist Today, was not even the original supplier.

Can you imagine how many people I will tell about this experience apart from blogging about it?  This behaviour is rare. Very rare.  The way this story would normally go is as follows; “Did you buy it here?  No?  Sorry then, we don’t adjust frames that we did not sell” or “That would cost you $150 which is our minimum charge assuming you don’t need any parts.”  Instead the Optometrist, and yes I was seen by the man himself, just fixed my problem and made my weekend.

How can your ad agency, tyre shop, neighbourhood waterhole or utility company learn from the good Optometrist?   What are they seeing that the rest of us are not?  We see costs, they see investment.

And I know already where my next pair of glasses is coming from.