You may wonder if the car dealer has gone overboard with his service and perhaps he has in a way. The customer can decline his offering at any time but at least he is there to offer it. You can go overboard with your willingness to please but you cannot go overboard with a good customer service policy. You really want to over deliver your promises but you do not want to under promise what you will do. There must be value attached to everything you do for the customer. If they do not perceive a value in the service, then you will not keep that customer for life. I recently had a contract with a company in the Bay Area; their motto was "To Thrill the Customer Everyday". Each person that came on board was also asked to take the motto and implement it in every way possible. As a result, this company is doing extremely well in a slumped economy. The customer service they offer goes beyond just doing the job, the quality of work, the professional attitudes, and the insightful solutions make this company tops.
Service for customers will help to you maintain and develop additional business relationships. What I mean is that customers will continue to do business with you because they know what they will get, plus they will give referrals by word of mouth. The important part is that not only should your service thrill the customer but your work should also be of excellent quality. Service and value cannot be matched by anyone that does not have the customer at heart. I remember going into a store not too long ago to get some garden supplies. This company was fairly large and had a few branch offices. This particular store had three employees that were sitting around chatting and reading a paper when I walked in. I started searching around for an item I needed and NO ONE bothered to get up and ask what I was looking for. I finally had to ask and they just pointed to where it might be. I just walked out and went elsewhere. I also let the owner know that his customer service was bad and no matter how much cheaper his prices were I would never shop there again.
In this case word of mouth worked really well. I let everyone know of my bad experience and his business was rarely full of excited customers. He could improve his profits tremendously if the customer service alone were to improve.
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Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Always Thrill the Customer
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The Emergence of The Relationship Economy
The Emergence of the Relationship Economy features TNNWC Founder, Adam J. Kovitz as a contributing author and contains some of his early work on The Laws of Relationship Capital. The book is available in hardcopy and e-book formats. With a forward written by Doc Searls (of Cluetrain Manifesto fame), it is considered a "must read" for anyone responsible for the strategic direction of their business. If you would like to purchase your own copy, please click the image above.
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