“$10 minimum credit card charge”
A sign that normally wouldn’t receive a second glance suddenly stopped me cold. I was on the way home from work, and had stopped at a small convenience store to pick up a gallon of milk. The milk cost less than $5. And this just happened to be a rare moment when my wallet contained no cash. I had plenty of buying power, with multiple credit cards, but no cash. Now what?
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes wonder if business owners stop to think about anyone other than themselves when deciding on their business' policies. I’m sure the policies are developed for a reason, but they can come across as very unfriendly to the customer.
A consideration when setting policies that relate to customers is to ask what the customer will feel when attempting to do what the policy prohibits. For instance, a non-smoking sign in a restroom is generally understood by customers to simply follow state laws; customers only need a simple reminder from time to time to ensure compliance. On the other hand, a policy that allows only one rebate offer per mailing address will frustrate college students who may share dorm addresses, particularly since they may not be aware of this policy until weeks or months after their purchase.
What would happen if policies relating to customer service would be stated as suggestions rather than hard and fast rules? If the sign had read, “Due to credit card processing costs, we request that purchases below $10 be cash only,” I may easily still be a committed customer of this particular convenience store. As it is, after the embarrassment of needing to go back out to my car without the milk, extract the “emergency cash” I keep in the glove compartment, and go back into the store to pay for my milk, I now do everything I can to buy my milk from a different store. Perhaps your customers will not mind this kind of irritation. On the other hand, why take the risk?