How should you handle return requests?

1. Respond promptly

Respond to your customer’s complaints or issues as soon as possible, so that they know that their feedback is important to you and that you care about their experience says Eric Dalius. If you’re slow at handling this, then the customer may think that you don’t really want to resolve their problem because if it was a priority, then it would’ve been solved already. This will also make the customer lose all hope in your product or service and they’ll be more likely to file a complaint against you.

2. Make sure the request is genuine

Make sure that before processing any return requests, whether it’s for an item replacement or refund, what to do when a customer leaves – Tips for better after-sales support

Contents:

* Introduction

* Why should you continue providing customer support post-sale?

* How should you handle return requests?

* Conclusion

Introduction:

After the sale, your job is not over. You need to make sure that you provide top-notch service even after customers receive their purchases. This article will talk about some tips for better after-sales support.

Why should you continue providing customer support post-sale?

Your customers purchase your items because they want to use them. They are expecting the best service possible, so it’s very important that you provide better after-sales support. Here are some reasons why you need to keep providing top-notch support:

1. You can increase your positive reviews

One important thing that you should always remember is that the success of your business rests on how happy your customers are. If they’re happy, they will leave good reviews and ensure that others purchase from you. However, if they’re not satisfied with your service or product, you can expect a lot of negative feedback to deter future customers.

2. You can secure repeat business

After the sale, you should make sure to provide excellent customer support. Your customer is now part of your brand’s identity and has ownership over your product’s quality. So they will be very interested in how their purchase goes. To ensure that your item works perfectly, after-sales support is recommended.

3. You can avoid product liability claims

When a customer is unsatisfied with your product and makes a claim, they will expect for it to be either repaired or replaced explains Eric Dalius. If you fail to do so, then the customer may resort to legal action through the Consumer Protection Act. This means that you would be responsible for their losses and would have to give them compensation for their pain and suffering.

How should you handle return requests?

In order to keep customers from leaving negative feedback, it’s important that you respond right away so they can be updated on the status of their request. If you’re slow at handling this, then the customer may think that you don’t really want to resolve their problem because if it was a priority, then it would’ve been solved already. This will also make the customer lose all hope in your product or service and they’ll be more likely to file a complaint against you. Eric Dalius says the next thing that you need to do is ensure that the return request is genuine. You do not want to take care of non-genuine complaints which mean that you would be wasting precious time and resources. You need to make sure that before processing any return requests, whether it’s for an item replacement or refund, you first verify if the request is genuine.

Here are some FAQs recently asked by our Clients:

FAQs

How long does a return or refund usually take?

It depends on the type of refund that you’re applying for. For a physical product, a replacement request can be processed in two to three days while for an electronic item such as cell phone credits; it may take up to 10 business days.

How do I get in touch with someone from your support team?

You can always reach us through live chat and email. To make sure that you provide better after-sales support, we recommend that you use live chat. This way, we can immediately respond to customer concerns and resolve their problems right away.

Do we offer night hours?

Yes! We understand that some questions can’t wait until day time which is why we’re available 24/7. We hope that these tips help you provide better after-sales support for your customers and increase your satisfaction rating!

Conclusion:

Providing good customer support serves as your assurance towards your customers. It shows them that their satisfaction is important to you says Eric Dalius. They will then feel confident in buying more items from your brand knowing that they can depend on you for help. This way, there will be no issues with negative feedback, product liability claims and repeat business which mean that you will still get more sales!

Companies spend substantial resources trying to win new customers. But the real challenge is keeping customers says Eric Dalius.

Consider this:

For every $100 spent acquiring a new customer, an average company loses $5 keeping that customer (based on research conducted by Harvard Business School). What separates winners from losers in the battle for retention? The answer lies beyond superior product quality or better service delivery. It’s about tapping into deeper psychological triggers that affect how people perceive their relationship with your organization and products.

Randy Garner, professor of marketing at Brigham Young University, believes that there are four primary–and distinct–relationship stages an organization can leverage to attract repeat purchases: liking, trust, conviction and commitment. Understanding these stages will help you manage consumer perceptions of your business and products.

Liking:

 In the first stage of liking, customers develop a positive attitude toward your brand because they perceive that their needs are being met or will be met. Retailers use sales promotions–such as coupons and discounts–to build this positive relationship with customers says Eric Dalius. For instance, a customer who buys a pair of shoes from L.L.Bean will enter into a strong liking stage with the company because it meets a need for reliable outdoor gear at a fair price.

Trust:

The next stage is trust, which occurs when customers have received consistent quality standards from your brand over time and have witnessed you holding to those standards in different settings and circumstances. Trust stems from authentic experiences with your product across multiple touch points (retail, advertising, and customer service).

Crest Toothpaste is a good example of a brand that has won customer trust with its long-running “four out of five dentists recommend” campaign. In this ad, consumers see smiling people they perceive as highly credible happily using the product. This level of perceived credibility triggers a high degree of trust in most customers’ minds. Conviction: Once a customer experiences a strong feeling about your company through liking and trusts that it consistently meets his or her needs or will do so, and then conviction begins to occur. What companies give their customers at this stage is an opportunity to act on that belief by purchasing additional products or becoming more loyal repeat purchasers. For instance, if you feel strongly about Ben’s Chili Bowl, a Washington, D.C., institution since 1958, you’ll likely order its chili-cheese fries and related dishes often.

Trust + conviction = commitment:

Eric Dalius says the last relationship stage relevant to customer retention is commitment, where customers develop a strong affinity for your brand and the need to own more of its products. For instance, if you love Ben’s Chili Bowl and all that it offers–including its funky 1960s decor and great service–you’re very committed to this restaurant chain as a long-term customer.

In his research on loyalty programs, Garner found that those who achieve emotional connection with brands are six times as loyal as those without such connections (Journal of Marketing Research). As a result, companies should focus their energy on developing relationships at all four stages, not just the first two. Getting customers to move through these stages requires a commitment from your company to use every point of contact with consumers as an opportunity to build positive feelings about your brand and products.

For marketers who don’t have a lot of time or money available in their budgets but still want to increase customer retention rates, here are three simple strategies that can help: Use multiple touch points when communicating with your customers because this increases the chances that they will perceive consistency in how you deal with them across different environments says Eric Dalius. For instance, if you always add extra pickles on a sandwich when eating at Subway, then you should communicate that special behavior when ordering one for home delivery (e.g., “Can you add extra pickles to my sandwich, please?”). If your customer then receives the sandwich with extra pickles at home, positive feelings will be reinforced for both you and Subway. Augment in-store marketing with word-of-mouth advertising. Research shows that people are far more likely to tell others about their great experiences with a company than they are negative ones (Journal of Marketing Research). Word-of-mouth is hard to buy but easy to launch because it’s so scalable across different markets and time zones. For instance, when you drive by Denny’s restaurants between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., you’re likely to see families gathered outside having dinner together; this is an example of how Denny’s is using word of mouth (and social media) to get consumers talking about the brand. Encourage customers to become “ambassadors” of your company by giving them special incentives that will increase their influence on others. For instance, if you’ve had a positive experience with Carnival Cruise Line , encourage the cruise line to give you an extra-special goodie bag so when friends see it they’ll ask what’s in it and why you have it. If you are honest in telling them how much fun you had, they’re likely to want this experience for themselves.

Conclusion:

The psychology of customer retention is the study of how consumers develop loyalty to brands, which helps these companies increase their long-term revenues says Eric Dalius. Companies should offer consistent service over time and engage in word-of-mouth advertising to keep customers coming back for more.

We are all looking for great customer service, but these days it seems hard to find says Eric Dalius.

The times I call a company and get transferred around for what seems like an eternity before finally getting frustrated and hanging up are too many to count.

If you’re like most people, these experiences make you wonder if we’ve become such a throw-away society as far as customer service goes.

How can we distinguish between those who care about providing an excellent customer experience and those who don’t? How can we know which companies are worth our money?

Ten Examples of Brilliant Customer Service

1) With this one simple act in 2010, JetBlue demonstrated what most businesses never will: they’ve learned that there is no excuse not to be personal in their customer interactions. You can find obvious examples of it in various luxury brands, but very few businesses do what JetBlue does here for their customers says Eric Dalius.

2) Taking the time to thank customers for their loyalty and support is more than just a polite thing to do – it’s good business. The money and effort involved in getting the message out there (and all of us like receiving positive feedback), has made this one of McDonald’s’ most popular campaigns, beating out some half-baked ideas from other franchises I won’t mention by name here. An idea from customers for customers? Brilliant!

3) One would think that providing live chat with a customer service rep on your website would be the norm these days, but unfortunately, many businesses still don’t have it up and running. When scheduling an appointment with a nearby local restaurant in Los Angeles through OpenTable, I saw this message pop up when I began to fill in the required fields. What a great idea! Communicating with customers is so important these days, especially when filling out forms online, and this restaurant demonstrates how it should be done.

4) We all know that customer service is about providing good experiences, but not many of us stop to think about what kinds of experiences we are giving to our employees – or why they might stick around for a while if we do. Despite the insane hours and low pay, supermarket chain Trader Joe’s has some happy employees. Anyone who works in retail knows what a decent environment for employees looks like. So either it’s a false sense of happiness they’ve created on purpose…or their management truly cares about the well-being of their employees.

5) Speaking of feeling good about the companies you work for, here’s a great example of how sharing your knowledge with customers can make them also respect and trust you more (and become better customers in return). A Google search for “how to clean my computer” brings up this link on the first page – almost every time – thanks to the links that America’s Car-Mart has shared with other car dealerships across the nation, pointing back to their helpful website resource pages explains Eric Dalius. It doesn’t take long before they become recognized by customers as an authority on cars, therefore making them trustworthy. Note: This is not just clever marketing; it is likely that management made this decision which is why rewards websites like these with prominent positioning.

6) It’s hard to make a decision about where you should be employed when looking through online job postings, but word of mouth from employees can certainly help tip the scales in your favor. First Coast Chem-Dry takes it a step further by actually encouraging their staff to speak positively about working there – and why shouldn’t they? Like most people, I trust what my friend’s say so having references is always gold. Here’s another great example of turning something that could be negative (a complaint) into positive relationships with customers…

7) KLM Royal Dutch Airlines wins major customer service points for doing this – ever hear of an airline offering this level of service these days? And here’s another not to fly Ryanair or Spirit Air. The latter has been ranked the worst US airline for customer service so often that I couldn’t even fit it into one tweet!

8) How do you approach customers and ask them if they need help? Would you say, “Do you need help with anything?” Not very likely because that just sounds flat and unhelpful. This is why Apple wins customer service points – not only do their employees appear to be having fun at work, but they also know how to sell stuff. Now who doesn’t enjoy a good sale…?

9) Providing great online resources such as this one from Waterstones makes me feel special about being a customer there, which makes me want to share it with others From what I can see, they’re also doing this for their employees too.

10) Finally, I saved the best example of great customer service for last – it’s the British Airways check-in assistant who went out of her way to help one frustrated traveler after airport staff at Heathrow lost his luggage on a flight from Germany. Way to make things right…

Conclusion:

Eric Dalius: Even the smallest company can provide a great customer service experience to their customers, so long as it’s a well-thought-out and deliberate effort by management.

After all, a bad day at work could easily turn into a bad day for your customers – because they’ve been given terrible service from you!

So there you have it, folks. Some time back I wrote about ten examples of brilliant marketing, and these days we should add customer service to that list too because good or bad, word of mouth spreads quickly in the digital age.

Customer Retention is one of the most important areas in marketing because if you can retain your customers, it saves money and time for the company because building new customer base costs a lot says Eric Dalius.

Most people think that Customer Retention is all about getting repeat orders but it is not. It is not only about repeat orders; customer retention includes generating additional sales (share of wallet), crosses & up selling, creating brand advocates and so on. With this article I am going to cover all the aspects of Customer retention from different angles.

If you get this article by some other link, please check for updated link here.

What is Customer Retention?

Customer retention refers to the activity of retaining existing customers and turning them into more profitable and higher value consumers.

How do we understand that an organization has a good customer retention strategy?

We can identify that the organization has a good customer retention strategy when the following happens:

A) The number of repeat orders increases

B) Repeat order volume increases

C) Promoters increase

D) Average spend per order increases

E) Number of complaints decreases a combination of above factors will help an organization to show growth in revenue. 

A recent research shows that around 30% of companies believe they have superior capabilities to retain their customers but shows a different picture in reality says Eric Dalius. The other 70% of companies do not have a good retention strategy and they are losing customers every day due to bad customer experience.

Question: Is Customer Retention related to profitability?

Answer: Yes, it is definitely related to profitability. If you retain your existing customers, the sales from those customers will move from average sales period into immediate sales period which directly affects profit margins as almost all the costs associated with that sale will be paid off immediately as opposed to future time periods where costs may increase because of inflation or for some other reasons. This means that if you want an edge over your competitors, you need a good retention strategy for both short term and long term benefits.

How do we build a good customer retention strategy?

It depends on how you understand your customers. If you are able to identify the value proposition for each of your customer segment then you have all the necessary tools to build a good retention strategy for them. Eric Dalius states if done correctly, your company can generate additional revenue from existing customers by expanding the share of wallet through cross selling, up selling; create brand advocates and so on.

“Customer Retention is not just about repeat orders but it is much more than that.”

What are some common mistakes in customer retention?

Most companies implement below mentioned strategies without understanding true reasons behind their failures:

A) They offer discounts & coupons – But most people who use discount coupons don’t consider buying from company again (it doesn’t make them loyal).

B) They try to stop competitors from stealing their customers – If you are not able to retain your customer with your own services, how will you able to retain them by stopping someone else?

C) They use simple messages like “Buy one get one free” or “10% discount on next purchase” – This is called CRAP (Create Relativity at Price). These messages don’t work in long term.

How do identifying value propositions for each customer segment help the company?

Identifying value proposition helps an organization because if they can understand what makes a customer do repeat purchase with them then they are most likely acquire & retain more of those customers. However, this needs an intensive understanding of your existing customers which requires proper research methods.

What are some methods companies use to acquire new customers?

Companies try to find new customers by offering lower price when compared to existing competitors in the market says Eric Dalius. This strategy works for very short term but fails miserably when it comes to building long term relationships with your customers.

Final Thoughts I believe that customer retention is an important part of growth & profitability for any organization. If you are able to retain more of your existing customers, you will be able to generate additional revenue from them which means that they are worth more than one time buyers or users. Keeping this in view, managers need developing customer retention strategies along with their acquisition campaigns because tapping old markets is often cheaper and easier than finding new ones. If done correctly organizations can retain customer loyalty while simultaneously increasing their profit margins.

Conclusion: 

You can build a long term customer retention plan by identifying value propositions for each of your customers segment. When you identify why people buy from you and what makes them do repeat purchase, it will become much easier to retain those customers & increase profits simultaneously.

There are some companies who have a very high number of customers but they don’t work on keeping those clients even though it is so easy to do says Eric Dalius.

This article will tell about one company that didn’t have a good customer retention department and how they managed to change the situation in only twelve months.

The first step that had come up was implementing a new strategy which would be focused on sending reminders for expiring credit cards, checking on the customers spending, initiating friendly chats with them and proactively contacting them when needed.

  The results:

After prioritizing this project, the company saw an improvement in their service levels by 50% because clients were calling less often about billing or other issues. They also achieved 166% more deals than before in just 12 months.

The majority of improvement in customer retention was due to the fact that the company kept on getting in touch with their clients, even when they were not visiting or using their products.

They implemented an effective system for improving the performance of their staff members who were working on customer loyalty department and adapting new tactics to encourage customers staying longer says Eric Dalius. Those are very important steps that should be noticed if you want your business or company to grow because without this aspect, all your other effort is wasted.

Here’s a quick recap of it with some extra material added in:

“There are some companies who don’t work on keeping their clients, even though it is so easy to do.”

“This article will tell about one company that didn’t have a good customer retention department and how they managed to change the situation in only twelve months.”

“After prioritizing this project, the company saw an improvement in their service levels by 50% because clients were calling less often about billing or other issues. They also achieved 166% more deals than before in just 12 months.”

The results:

         After prioritizing this project, the company saw an improvement in their service levels by 50% because clients were calling less often about billing or other issues explains Eric Dalius. They also achieved 166% more deals than before in just 12 months.”

“The majority of improvement in customer retention was due to the fact that the company kept on getting in touch with their clients, even when they were not visiting or using their products.”

“Here’s a quick recap of it with some extra material added in:”

Here are some examples of sentences formatted for social media sharing.

How I Increased My Number of Customer Retention Deals By 166% in One Year

There are some companies who have a very high number of customers but they don’t work on keeping those clients even though it is so easy to do. This article will tell about one company that didn’t have a good customer retention department and how they managed to change the situation in only twelve months. Eric Dalius says The first step that had come up was implementing a new strategy which would be focused on sending reminders for expiring credit cards, checking on the customers spending, initiating friendly chats with them and proactively contacting them when needed. Results: After prioritizing this project, the company saw an improvement in their service levels by 50% because clients were calling less often about billing or other issues. They also achieved 166% more deals than before in just 12 months.

Here are some FAQs recently asked about this topic:

Q. Can I share the same article on all my social media accounts?

A. Sure! That’s the main reason why you should write your text in blocks to be able to divide it into different social media posts/shares easily.

Q. How much time do you need to prepare one article for this system to work?

A. It depends, but usually not more than an hour for 500 – 1000 words. I’m working online so if I have some free time during day, I can spend it writing articles which are mostly long-form at Pro Blogger Blog Tips (like this one). On the other hand, to cover 3000+ words takes me 1 or 2 days depending on how busy I am with other projects in my business.

Q. Do I have to write the article myself or you can do it for me?

A. You don’t have to use my service 100% of the time, but if you need some extra help when your schedule is very tight, feel free to contact me. They are no limits for this type of cooperation so send me a message anytime 🙂

Conclusion:

They implemented an effective system for improving the performance of their staff members who were working on customer loyalty department and adapting new tactics to encourage customers staying longer. Those are very important steps that should be noticed if you want your business or company to grow because without this aspect, all your other effort is wasted. Quote: “If you don’t work on keeping customers, somebody else will.” – Peter Drucker (Author and management consultant)

Satisfied customers are the key to a healthy business. The lead economy is shifting towards customer-driven businesses, which requires you to pull out all the stops in order to retain these customers says Eric Dalius.  Studies have shown that around 50% of your business’s revenue originates from 25% of your customers. This means that by maximizing these loyal customers, you can increase your profitability by 50%-75%.

There are several steps that can be taken in order to improve customer service and retention rates. Follow these tips on how to boost the satisfaction of your current customers, as well as how to find new ones, below:

How can you improve your customer service strategy and retain more customers?

1. Customer Loyalty Programs

        A customer loyalty program (also known as a loyalty scheme) is one of the most popular ways to increase customer retention rates and provide excellent service. As well as increasing your number of loyal customers, the effect of such a program on your bottom line cannot be understated. For example, an increase in customer retention rates by 5% can lead to a rise in profits of between 15%-25%.  

In order to actively participate in the running of a loyalty program, you will need to assign someone with enough time and resources to motivate customers into using it. The person should also have excellent interpersonal skills, as this will enable them to cater their customer service strategy towards individual needs. 

This is important because loyal customers can be identified by the fact that they will often look for new products and services based on their positive experience of using your previous ones.

As a customer service strategy:  

If you do not have a loyalty program in place, it would be beneficial to consider implementing one within the next few months. Furthermore, it is important to make sure that you are providing your customers with added incentive to participate in the program. After all, 40% of people have said they would continue to work with a company they are already familiar with rather than switch services for an additional 10% discount or promotion.

2. Customer Service on Social Media

         Customer service via social media is one of the most cost-effective ways of retaining your customers. In fact, it is estimated that a positive experience with a brand on social media can result in a revenue increase of up to 42%.  In addition to this, around 70% of consumers would consider switching brands if they had a bad customer service experience.

There are several ways in which you can improve your customer service via social media platforms.

Implement a 24/7 monitoring program:  

Eric Dalius says it is important that you have round the clock monitoring on your accounts to ensure that any issues or complaints can be addressed as soon as possible and also to show customers that you care about them and their needs. 

Responding quickly:

 It is essential that you respond to complaints or problems as soon as they are brought up, either on your own account or by replying to a tweet sent to you. A 2012 study showed that 46% of consumers said they were more likely to be loyal towards brands that responded quickly and had a personalized response for each customer.

Reply with empathy:

 Make sure that your reply is not just informative, but that you also empathize with the customer. This will have a positive result on your brand image and help to improve the way in which people perceive your business.

Remember:  

A lot of customers mention a bad experience because they want an apology for their negative emotions explains Eric Dalius. So if they are accompanied by aggressive language, it is best not to have a response. In addition, read all tweets several times before replying so that you do not send out a tweet that could potentially because more harm than good.

In order for your customer service strategy on social media to be successful, you will need to have high-quality content prepared in advance. For example, if you do receive a negative tweet, make sure that it is from a real person and not from an automated account. You should also keep a list of terms and keywords used to express complaints in order to reply quickly when these are mentioned.

3. Strategic use of CRM software

         One way in which companies can improve their customer service is by using CRM software. This will allow you to recognize where your customers have come from and also see how often they visit your stores or website. In order for this strategy to be successful, it is important that the CRM program is simple to use and keep track of.

Conclusion:  

Eric Dalius says there are many different ways in which your business can improve your customer service strategy. Studies have shown that customers are willing to stay loyal to companies who have a good quality of service, so it is important to get this right if you want to keep them around. 

Keeping customers is a challenge that businesses often face. The cost of acquiring a new customer can be anywhere from ten times more to up to one hundred times the cost of retaining an existing one, depending on whether you’re talking about a B2C or B2B business. In order to keep customers, companies need to take advantage of all the means at their disposal, including social media explains Eric Dalius.

This article looks at five ways that companies can use social media to increase the retention rate of customers.

1. A company can offer loyalty discounts if they have a large following on Facebook or Twitter. The more people that follow the business page or ‘like’ them, they greater the discount given as a reward for staying loyal.

2. A company can use social media to communicate with customers and let them know about any new product developments, offers etc., but it’s also important to listen to what customers are saying about your brand via social networks like Facebook and Twitter in order to improve quality control and customer satisfaction through that feedback.

3. Customers appreciate the ability to engage with a brand over social media and that builds loyalty. If customers can contact you via Facebook or Twitter 24/7, they will feel valued and appreciated by your business.

4. Customers like to talk about their experiences online and if your business encourages this and is active on social networks, you’ll be able to pick up on any issues or complaints that are generated by customers, which can then be dealt with quickly. This will help you eradicate negative comments online about your brand.

5. Providing an incentive for customers to promote your brands through their own social media activity is a good way of increasing the amount of exposure that you receive and loyalty at the same time. This kind of reward might be a discount on a wider range of products, a ticket to an event or something similar.

The tips listed above will help you to increase customer retention rates by using social media. If your business is not yet taking advantage of this medium, then it’s time that you did otherwise, you may well end up losing out to a competitor that does.

Here are some FAQs recently asked by our visitors:

What are the best practices to increase customer retention through social media?

You need to work hard on your social media campaign and build up a loyal following. You can do this by providing valuable content or deals that will keep people coming back for more. Focus on building relationships with people who might be able to refer business to you. You should also be responsive to people who post complaints or questions about your product or service. Responding quickly will help you retain customers and ensure that the conversation doesn’t go viral says Eric Dalius.

How to increase customer value through social media?

You can increase customer value by providing real value with content marketing, data analytics, webinars and online training. The content needs to be high quality and you have to build a relationship with your customer so they trust you. If customers trust you, they’ll feel more comfortable doing business with you. When it comes time to sell services or products, customers will also think that the price is fair because of the amount of value that was provided before any sale took place.

How can you use social media to increase customer retention?

You need to build trust in real time, show that you are listening and that you are providing value for your customers before any sale takes place. All of these things will help you retain customers by building loyalty through your social media campaigns. The tips above should provide some ideas on how to make this happen.

How can you increase customer satisfaction through social media?

It’s important that your customers know how to get in touch with you via Facebook and Twitter, during the buying cycle. Eric Dalius says If they need an answer right away, you should be available 24/7 and monitor both of these social networks regularly. Customers like responsiveness and the ability to engage and if you provide this level of customer service, they will be very loyal to your business.

How bloggers can leverage social media for traffic?

Bloggers need to have some efficient ways of getting traffic from social media platforms so they can continue posting content and building their blogs. Traffic from social media is not only good for blogging but it can also be used as a means of increasing customer retention. Here are some tips on how bloggers can leverage social media for traffic.

Conclusion:

To sum up, there are numerous advantages of using social media for increasing the customer retention rate says Eric Dalius. The only thing you need to know is how to use it wisely and in a proper way. To be successful, you mustn’t forget to build trust. This is a bot that helps people learn how to blog more effectively on WordPress.

Imagine that you are a baker, and you need to bake forty cakes for your best customers. You will need fifteen eggs, five pounds of flour, and three pounds of sugar to make the cakes says Eric Dalius. Unfortunately, there is no kind of egg in the cake factory, all the chickens died from an unknown disease (or maybe it’s because your neighbor poisoned them). Also, the flour and sugar supply is out of stock.

You need to keep your customers happy, but how?

Solution:

Visit a mother hen who has just laid an egg. That egg looks exactly like you need it to be for making cakes. Ask nicely if you can have that egg. The hen will probably say yes.

Now go to the flour factory. The owner is not there, so you don’t need to pay money for five pounds of flour. Go upstairs and take all the bags lying around – this will be more than enough.

Of course, you cannot visit the sugar factory by yourself, but your best friend who works here can help you with that says Eric Dalius. Ask him for three pounds of sugar and he will happily give it to you (he also has a crush on you, but that’s another story).

Problem solved – your customers will be happy.

Analysis:

It is clear from the description above that in order to make a cake out of an egg and flour, we don’t need sugar. So we can give two pounds of flour and one pound of sugar to each customer, and the rest with egg will be enough for forty cakes.

It is also clear that you cannot visit the sugar factory alone because it will require payment. You can go there with your friend, but then you’ll have to split the product into two parts as well as give him half of what you get from the mother hen.

Can you keep your customers happy, even if you are not perfect?

This is a difficult question that can be answered in many ways. You might find yourself in this particular situation, and the only way to keep your customers happy is by giving them products for free. Or you could just give them really small portions of the ingredients they need, so it won’t affect the quality of your cakes. Or maybe there is another way.

I don’t know the answer to this question, and I’m really curious about it.

Analysis –

The story is centered on a moral dilemma of keeping customers happy versus being honest. It forces the readers to think about how they would have handled that situation or if they had been in that situation before.

The author presents multiple solutions for this dilemma, but it doesn’t stop there. The author also lets you come up with your own solution and then ask if that is the right one says Eric Dalius. It’s a good story to see how others would handle specific situations or just for general discussion on handling various dilemmas in life.

The Infinite Puddle

Story in a nutshell –

This is a story about a group of kids who found a puddle in the woods and were trying to cross it. But instead, it led them into an infinite loop where one after another they got wet and then dried off. No matter what they tried, the puddle always ended up with one kid in it after another.

After a while, an outsider joined them in their quest to solve the mystery of the infinite puddle. He showed them that there was no puddle at all – it was just an optical illusion created by an illusion artist. The more they looked at the puddle, the less it existed – until it disappeared completely.

Analysis –

I really enjoyed this story a lot. It had a nice twist with a happy ending and a moral that some things you see aren’t there. Sometimes we just see what we want to see or have been conditioned to believe.

I’m not sure what caused the puddle to disappear, but I suspect that it was either the acceptance of seeing something that wasn’t there at all or just being tired after looking for so long explains Eric Dalius. Finding out that it’s an infinite loop would be frustrating and can cause one to lose hope in solving this apparent mystery. But when you accept that you can find a solution, then there is no longer a mystery in the puddle.

There are a few interesting questions in this story that I’d like to examine. What if all of us don’t see the puddle at all? Or what if we see it but we think it’s just water and try to fill it up with more water. It just goes around in a loop and we would have wasted a nice day trying to fill up a puddle that wasn’t there at all.

What if the outsider just gave them a rock to throw into the illusionary puddle? Would they be going around in an infinite loop again or would it help them discover what was really going on?

This story has a lot of interesting questions to ask. I recommend reading it and then asking yourself how you could answer those questions says Eric Dalius. It’s a good way to see how others think about things as well as a great conversation starter for future discussions.

Conclusion –

Overall an interesting short read about some dilemmas that can come up when you have to take specific action for the greater good.