If you have come this far, it may be because you are curious about what “milk bread” has to do with the loss of customers. Well, in the following lines I assure you that you will understand it, or at least I will try to.
We have always heard the phrase, “it sells like hotcakes” but what if the opposite happens?
I arrived in Spain a long time ago, and I didn't know its supermarkets, its products, or its customs, but I was determined to get to know them and integrate quickly. Having just settled in Madrid, I asked a neighbour where I could do my shopping. He told me that there were 3 supermarkets nearby: a German franchise, a Spanish one, and a French one. In my eagerness to get to know Spanish products and integrate quickly, I went to do my shopping in the Spanish supermarket. I wanted to know what products they sold, what people put in their shopping carts, but above all, what to eat for breakfast.
Entering the supermarket I found very narrow aisles, a deafening silence, an excessive cold, and unfriendly looking shop assistants. I arrived at the bakery products section and one of them was of course “milk bread”, and it was a white label. I found the name curious, I had never consumed a product like that, so I took a couple of packages to try them. Even though my experience as a customer was not the best, the product was promising.
The next morning I made a cup of coffee and opened hotels and motels email list the first package of “milk bread” and I couldn’t believe it, I loved that flavor that was so inexplicable to me at that moment. So, for the next few days I had milk bread for breakfast, almost obsessively. Having found a product that met my needs and that also offered me additional satisfaction, even when the service it offered achieved the opposite, made me continue to go shopping at that supermarket for months; and sometimes a good product makes you forget a bad service.
When I felt it was time to explore a new supermarket and get a different experience, I headed straight to the German supermarket. Even though my neighbor had previously informed me that their prices were higher, I still decided to go. And that's because 55% of consumers are willing to pay more for a good experience according to a survey conducted by ThinkJar.
Looking for a good product accompanied by good service
That day I got out of bed very early, went to the pantry and realized that I had run out of “milk bread.” I took advantage of this to visit that supermarket that everyone at my business school used as an example in class. When I arrived, it was also small, but everything was more organized, I perceived the smell of the supermarket as more pleasant, there was music playing and there were a few more customers in its aisles and I even got a welcoming smile from one of its saleswomen.
