20 cents is not a lot.

I recently spent time browsing in one of the many outdoor emporiums that have sprung up around the affectation for the great outdoors. Churches to all things khaki and camouflage, filled with everything needed to survive the back yard tent and beyond and the first place I'm heading when the "big one" hits, although I'm less clear nowadays what the "big one" really is. The survival ingenuity contained in this one store is enough to keep mankind safe for the next millennial. To survive forever takes a lot of money and price tags indicating only the truly committed need apply bring new meaning to retail euphoria and the customer experience required to throw your plastic on the counter. As I passed the register I noticed a young girl had just bought a $3000.00 backpack and was asked if she wanted to pay 20 cents for a bag to carry it home in? Okay I jest about the $3000.00 price tag but you know it wasn't cheap and here she is being accosted by the checkout clerk for a trifling. The incredulous look on her face said everything about the excellent customer experience she had just enjoyed, sunk into a mire of mediocrity.

She had not walked off the street on impulse to spend hundreds of dollars, she had researched her requirements, she had checked online, she had spent time in-store trying on assorted backpacks and was obviously enjoying the experience, until now. Tantamount to running the greatest hundred metre final in Olympic history and falling down one metre from the finish line or hearing the funniest story ever and then leaving out the punch line, total customer service is not 99% or close enough. Especially when a penny pinching initiative like paying 20 cents for a bag is the last thing you remember leaving the store.

This store obviously prides itself on the layout, the merchandise and the training it has afforded the staff, yet to have all that outlay compromised by a decision likely made by someone in finance, long removed from the shop floor impacts their brand integrity.
The store mission statement "keep people safe, comfortable and confident to travel and explore what the word has to offer to them. With a Core Purpose to inspire and enable people to live their dreams of travel and adventure" sounds hollow when the bottom line seems more important, even at 20 cent increments.

There is so much wrapped up in customer service, that lives as long as the product is viable, the ring or beep of the cash register is one of the least important events to occur in the timeline of a customer. Backpack girl could become a zealot for the merchandise and the seller, she could be a poster child for happy trails to her circle and bring business to the hiking haven, yet what is the last thing she remembers? 20 cents isn't much but it's enough to make a significant purchase lose its shine, lose it's excitement and make someone think twice about repeat business. Are your customers worth more than 20 cents?