In the seventh season of Seinfeld, a very memorable character nicknamed the “Soup Nazi” was introduced.  This character was based on a real soup vendor out of New York that I actually had the pleasure of meeting. Notably portrayed as a business owner with a high quality product, and low quality service. For the record, while the low quality service displayed on television may be the product of a little embellishment, the high quality of the product is spot on. I’ve never had shrimp bisque so good but that’s beside the point.

What does this have to do with you and your business? Well, I’ll tell you. On the front lines of many service oriented industries you will find the “Coupon Nazi”. The Coupon Nazi as we will call them here is that front line representative that acts as a warden preventing customers from taking advantage of their company and its policies. They serve to make sure that no eleventh item makes it through any ten items or less isle, that no offer is taken after its expiration date or at the wrong location, and that each and every surcharge, add on, up sale, and hidden fee is applied and accounted for.

As a business owner I’m sure that you agree that policies and procedures are in place for a reason. In many cases this is true with the exception of customer conflict. For example, let’s say that a customer needing to perform vehicle maintenance decides to use an offer sent through the mail for 20% of their total cost. The customer is looking to spend roughly 800 dollars on various repairs and maintenance. The Coupon Nazi notices that the coupon expired several days prior and immediately notifies the customer that the coupon is expired. In some cases the customer is very apologetic and accepting of the policy. For the sake of argument let’s say that the customer is not so understanding and the inflexibility of the Coupon Nazi drives the customer away.  The Coupon Nazi’s victory just cost that business owner an immediate $640 dollars and any residual sales generated from repeat business over the lifetime of that customer. In addition they also have ensured that those sales, immediate and repeat, will go to one of your competitors. Looks like employee of the month material to me (note the sarcasm).

In the previous example it may seem easier to see the effects of our Coupon Nazi because the immediate sale is high. In an instance where the immediate sale is low you may have a higher number of customers who will leave and yet it is more difficult to see the effects because it takes longer for the consequences to add up. Consequently, Coupon Nazi’s are created by the short leashes of upper management. It is possible to identify and deter this behavior but policy change must start from top to bottom. Here are some general rules to go by:

1. If a policy is causing the loss of customers it may be time to evaluate the priority of that policy.
2. Never assume (especially openly to the customer) that customers are attempting to somehow manipulate your policies for their own gain. Is it ever true? Yes. Is it always true? No.
3. Policies should reflect customers buying and shopping habits not conflict with them.
4. Company policy should make your company and its employee’s competitive customer service experts not offensive “customer service napalm”.
5. Empower employees to go the extra mile in the name of customer service without the fear of punishment from management above them.

Simple steps will help grow your business. Ignoring the issue is costing you!  [1] Bulldog Rule #8 - Re-examine your business often.

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