Going the Extra Wing

Can One extra wing make a difference to your customers? Wing Stop seems to think so.

For those of you who somehow don't know, Wing Stop is a local Wing place here in town and quite frankly, I'm addicted. They have lemon pepper wings that are to die for! But just because they have a terrific product that sells itself doesn't mean they're slacking off in going the extra mile for their customers. Take today for example.

A colleague of mine at work announced that she was going to Wing Stop for lunch and wanted to know if anyone in the office was interested. I had brought leftover sushi, but at the mere mention of wings my sushi no longer sounded that appetizing anymore, so I broke down, gave her $5 and asked for 10 lemon pepper wings.

About 30 minutes later this colleague of mine returned with my wings! I opened my box to find not 10, but 11 warm and delicious lemon pepper wings staring back at me in all their golden lemony goodness.

I was ecstatic! This may sound silly to you, but seeing that one extra, free wing in that box put me in such a good mood, it re-affirmed my belief that Wing Stop is the best place in town for wings. This isn't the first time I've gotten a few extra wings in an order either.  Now perhaps the person boxing up the wings doesn't know how to count.  Though I have to believe that since I've never gotten less than I ordered that they at least know how to count to 10 (and I've even ordered 25 wings at once before!) so that pretty much rules out the dumb wing boxer upper theory. 

I believe that the people at wing stop care more about creating lasting and fulfilling relationships with their customers than how much that extra wing subtracted from their bottom line.  I can only assume this approach to business is working pretty well for them too.  They've gone from one to several locations all around town within just a few years.  In these hard times it doesn't look like their business is suffering too much.

Are you giving your customers free wings? Maybe you don't operate a restaurant that serves hot wings, so what are you giving to your customers that creates or reaffirms their loyalty to your business?  Are you going the extra mile to show them their business is important to you?  What can you give away for free?  It doesn't have to be big, but you'll most likely see big results in return!

Kellye and I make it a point to create and bring something special for the Birthday boy or girl when we go to Birthday Parties. We find out what their favorite cartoon character is or what the theme of the party is and create something extra special to surprise them with at the end before we leave. This extra work doesn't cost our customers anything. We typically spend about an hour per balloon sculpture before a party, but the smiles it brings to the kids (and parent's) faces is well worth the extra time and effort. Plus we get the chance to develop our skills by taking the time to practice creating more challenging and complex balloon creations. The business we're getting from word of mouth far exceeds any marketing promotion we could have done ourselves!