One of the great things you can do to establish brand loyalty is to provide great free services to your loyal consumers and/or customers.
My Swatch watch broke down on the last work day of the week. Naturally, I'd have to pay for the battery and for the replacement service. I was wrong. Dead wrong.
Over the weekend, I armed myself with some money and my lifeless timekeeper to the Swatch store (in a nearby mall) to have the battery replacement procedure done on it.
I handed over the watch to the store attendant and coyly asked how much is the service to which he replied, "It's free." I thought my ears were deceiving me. While he was busy replacing the battery on my watch, I asked him again, "How much is the battery?"
He then strangely looked at me as if I cannot understand the word "free." And he handed me over my newly adjusted watch and told me, "You don't have to pay us anything," and pointed out to a sign in the store which says that the battery service and polishing is free.
So I deduced that as long as my watch is from their collection, the battery service and polishing (of the glass) is free for life. It's a good deal, right, as long as I buy watch from them.
I'm not sure if this is true for the Swatch stores in the Philippines though. The last time I had a battery replaced, I forked out a huge amount to have it done.
The next thing I'll try (for free, of course) is the polishing service. Maybe I'll go to their newly opened store which is just around the corner from where I live.
Saturday, October 17
