Is your business famous for great customer service? Do your customers tell others about you? Do your customers leave your store thinking, “Wow, it is so nice to buy from this business!” If not, you do not have the renowned customer service you need to survive in today’s marketplace.
Face it. Your customers can buy the products and service you sell from a lot of different competitors. The only thing you really have to differentiate your business is your service.
So what is good customer service these days? Does it mean having a sales associate help the customer find the right item, size and color? Keeping prices as low as possible? Keeping the restrooms clean? Making a delivery on time? Fixing errors quickly? Having a live person answering the phone?
Good customer service is defined by what is important to each individual customer. Renowned customer service is service that is so good that the customer needs to tell others about it.
I was fortunate that my father taught me what renowned customer service was when I was young. He always taught valuable lessens by example or by experience. Unfortunately for me one snowy Christmas eve in central Pennsylvania, he taught me about renowned customer experience through experience.
I was home from college on vacation and working at the family electronics business. On the morning of Christmas Eve, a customer, a truck driver, came in and bought our low-end black-and-white 19-inch TV.
That was a sale we lost $10 on. I asked my father why he didn’t sell the customer a model we made a profit on. He told me that the customer was a good truck tire customer (we also had a tire store) whose business was not doing well at the time. In fact, the man was delivering freight to the West Coast over Christmas to make extra money.
My father then told me to deliver the TV to the man’s home. It was a surprise for his wife and four kids.
As I set out to make the delivery, a strong sleet storm hit the area and I immediately regretted not wearing a warm coat. When I arrived at the customer’s home, the snow and sleet pelted me as I carried the TV up a dozen steps to the porch. A lady opened the door and I told her I was from Janet’s and had a television for her that her husband had purchased. She immediately told me I was making a mistake; they could not afford a television and her husband never would have made such a purchase. She shut the door in my face.
I carried the TV back to the truck and went to a neighbor’s house to call my father. “Don’t come home before you deliver that television,” he said.
Back out in the snowy, icy weather I went. I hauled the TV up the steps and to the porch. I knocked on the door. This time the lady did not open the door. She again told me I was mistaken and to get off her porch or she’d call the police. Off the porch, down the steps, and through the snow and ice I went. I was now freezing. I called my father again. He said, “Deliver the television,” and he hung up.
As I sat out in front of the customer’s house thinking of what I could say to the woman, a police car pulled up beside me. She had called the cops! I told him what was going on. “Get the TV and come with me,” he said and got out of his warm cruiser. We trudged up the steps he knocked on the door and the lady to let us in. “I know Janet’s store very well and they usually don’t make mistakes,” the officer said. “Mr. Janet will sign that if this is a mistake, and this television was not purchased by your husband you get to keep it anyway.” She finally took the TV.
When I arrived home, I was cold, wet and freezing. My father was sitting comfortably in front of a roaring fire drinking eggnog. “What the hell was that all about?” I demanded.
Before I could continue he looked at me. “We are 100 percent customer-centered. Everything we do is about and for the customer, not about us,” he said. “We do not have good service; we have renowned service. I promised the customer we would deliver the television, and we deliver what we promise.” He finished his eggnog and I learned a lesson: If you want to be successful selling products and services you have to be 100 percent customer centered. 99.9 percent is not good enough.
Bob Janet of Sales Growth Now is a trainer, speaker and author with more than 40 years of experience. He can be reached at 800-286-1203 or at Bob@BobJanet.com. For more information, go to www.bobjanet.com
