Isn’t it interesting that many languages have the same word for hello and goodbye?
In Hawaii, it’s aloha. At the door, it means welcome. On the way out, it means the same thing. The word never changes, because it was never really about arriving or leaving. It means love. Affection. Compassion. Leaving doesn’t change the feeling.
Hawaii takes it seriously enough to keep it in the law books. Since 1986, state officials have been required to conduct themselves with the aloha spirit. The statute spells the word out, one letter per trait: kindness, unity, pleasantness, humility. And the last one, ahonui. Patience. Persistence.
English split the word in two. Hello opens. Goodbye closes. Tidy. And it quietly teaches us that once someone’s gone, it’s over.
Bad follow-up is unforgettable. Good follow-up is invisible. It fits. It shows up when it should, says what you’d expect, and disappears into the day.
Most of what gets built is built for the hello. The sign, the ad, the greeting at the door. Goodbye gets whatever’s left. But not everyone says yes the first time, and some of the best customers are the ones who walk out.
All that effort to get people into your stores, and so little to bring them back.
That’s where follow-up has to be solid. A chain is only as good as its weakest link. Ninety-nine steps done right and one missing, and the whole thing breaks.
It’s the gap most high-ticket retailers struggle with. A broken line. The instinct is to tie the two ends of the process together and call it fixed.
Sailors knew better. A knot bends the rope back on itself, and that’s where it gives. They didn’t throw the rope out either. They spliced it: wove the strands at both ends into each other until you had to look hard to find the seam. Done right, the line held almost like it had never parted.
Nobody remembers a good splice. It just holds.
Next time someone walks out without buying, notice which word they heard. Or if there was nothing but silence as they vanished from whence they came.
Aloha,
Jerry
P.S. Find the break in your process and fix it with a splice. Tomorrow, I’m joining Tara Kelly, CEO of SPLICE, for A Retailer’s Path to More Be-Backs. Forty-five minutes on seeing who left, why, and how to stay connected after they do. Trakwell sees who walked in. SPLICE keeps the conversation going after they walk out.
