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Winning the Game
November 22,
2010 by in UnCategorized 
By Home Furnishings Business in on November 23, 2010
My daughter Sidney is a junior at N.C. State University. Their biggest rival is University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You may have heard of the Tar Heels.
Sidney is also a rabid football fan. Shes never missed a home game and shows up hours early to get a great spot in the student section. She knows every word and hand motion to every cheer.
When the college football schedule was released for this year, she immediately called and said, Can I get an early Christmas present and get tickets to the N.C. State vs. Carolina game? Chapel Hill was hosting the game this year, so we couldnt play the student ticket route for this particular challenge.
So, I found myself Googling around looking for tickets to a State vs. Carolina football game. I clicked to one of hundreds of ticket sites, paid $185 for two tickets, and had the tickets sent to Sidney. I then sat down in the Moms a Hero chair for a little while.
This was literally months ago. Then it happened. A couple of weeks ago on an otherwise peaceful Sunday night, I received a frantic call that said she had looked for the tickets and they had been lost. Horror of horrors, Batman! Sidney is UBER-organized. She remembers all, she knows all, she meticulously color codes.
I now had a non-existent Christmas present for my daughter, and she had the biggest school rival football game coming up and no tickets.
I didnt even remember where Id bought those tickets from. I had to go to a previous bank statement to find the name of the pretty much anonymous company I gave $185 to for tickets months and months ago. Now I needed their help.
I promised Sid I would call the company, although in my heart of hearts, I knew it wasnt going to work. I had already moved on to trying to decide if I would replace the tickets OR make this a hard lesson for Sidney in the art of not losing things.
That is when something quite unexpected happened. I called Ticket City. I got a live person on the phone. They were actually helpful. They said they could help. They actually did.
What happened was some good old-fashioned customer service. Id forgotten what it felt like to be treated like a human being where someone actually gives a crap that youve called.
It was revolutionary. Like, seriously.
Tickets bought on the Internet are a commodity. As long as the ticket isnt bogus, theres not really any difference.
Heres the furniture angle: I bet most retailers reading (price point not withstanding) have product that looks awfully darned similar. Now we all know its not really, but to the consumer, its not as different as we may think.
How do you stand out in the sea of sameness? How on earth do you communicate your difference to a nervous, jaded consumer whos had one too many bad experiences?
You gotta give her something she wont expecta stellar experience. Because frankly, shes expecting mediocre and most times that is what she gets. Exceed her expectations. Delight herin store, online and especially when something goes wrong. You have to be better these days. You have to be sparkly and refreshing. If youre not, shell start on Google and go from there. Is that where you want to place your fortunes?
Next time I need a ticket, Ill go to TicketCity.com. It matters.
The question is, do you?