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62 April | 2021 I n Part 1 of this article (Florists' Review March 2021), I introduced the first part of the formula for getting your customers to do your marketing for you—the critical component of bottom-line success. In a famed research study by Frederick F. Reichheld, a Fellow at the Boston- based management consulting firm Bain & Company and the author of Loyalty Rules! and e Ultimate Question, Reichheld discovered that only one question on customer surveys correlated with growth of the bottom line: Will you recommend us? Add to that the other critical component: What do they say when they recommend you? ere are so many critical points to success. But if I had to pick just one more to share with you, it is this: No one is perfect! Mistakes will happen, but research shows that when a customer has a bad experience, if you handle it well, own up to it, correct it, and go above and beyond to make it right, that customer is actually more likely to recommend you than if you never made the mistake in the first place. at is not an invitation to screw up on purpose, but I will share with you my favorite Disney story from the early days: "e Ferryboat Story." When guests take the ferryboat across the bay from the parking lot to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Fla., the ferryboat drivers and team are trained with this important wisdom: Most guests stand on the front of the boat so they can see the castle and get those first pictures; therefore, the boat going to the park is lower in the bow (boat talk for the front of the boat). As you pass a boat returning from the park, rule No. 1 is to not turn into the wake of the other boat, or a wave will come over the bow, getting guests wet up to their knees and taking purses, cameras, tickets and all sorts of items to the bottom of the bay with the wave. And it happened once—during a January, with cold water, making it even worse! So, what are we trained to do when mistakes happen? Disney had an incredible "what if " tool built into its system—the best I've ever seen, and this ferryboat incident was way before the days when every employee had access to computers and cell phones We were told that if there was an emergency—a safety situation—and we didn't know what to do, we were to call a specific number. e ferryboat crew started to panic. en they remembered and dialed the hotline. It was staffed by security and guest-relations people, who jumped into action. By the time the ferryboat got to the other side of the bay (within minutes), they were met by the guest- relations manager and staff. ey had Service cu omer magic Turning a Bad Experience Into an Opportunity By Susie Pecuch, Design the Customer Conversation Pecuch has served as a senior execuctive in marketing and customer service for Disney, Nike and Singapore Airlines. This article is part two in a series, Creating Magic.

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