I’ve been thinking about the best way to organize my office and my customer files. I’ve tried several different approaches and so far, haven’t found the one that lets me serve my customers the way I want to serve them.
Components of good customer service include:
- Quality product
- Contact
- Personalization
- Integrity
- A little something extra.
Of course I have a quality product. I wouldn’t be selling it if it wasn’t a great product. For this post, let me talk tea and Let’s Do Tea.
Contact with present and future customers is vitally important. Now the questions begin. How is the best way to contact my customers? How often do I contact them? What information do I provide them to keep them satisfied? Some I’ve figured out for my Let’s Do Tea business; some I’m still working on. If you were my customer, what would you suggest?
In today’s world, personalization of any service is one of the keys to making it stand out in a crowd. To personalize my service I want to know more than my customer’s name and contact information. I want to know about their lifestyles and food preferences. Then I can target any new tea launches to those customers who may enjoy them the most. How would you track or log this information so it’s available when you need it?
Integrity. What can I say here? Every day I strive to be a person of integrity – to do those things I’ve said I will do when I say I will do them. And, if for some legitimate reason I can’t, I let my customer know as soon as possible. I have not experienced this as a customer very often so it’s important to model this behavior. Integrity also means that I say “No” when I really can’t do something or really don’t want to do a thing – living in truth to myself.
A little something extra. Ahhh, here’s the part I love. What makes me tick is unexpected, spontaneous generosity and random acts of kindness. Most will understand random acts of kindness. Unexpected, spontaneous generosity is a little more difficult to grasp, but is very similar to random acts of kindness. An example of unexpected, spontaneous generosity would be paying for the food of the car behind you in a drive-thru line. It’s an unexpected, spontaneous act performed by a generous spirit. And the look on the other driver’s face is always priceless!
If you have suggestions in any of these areas – contact, personalization, integrity, a little something extra – that will help me get better organized, I’d appreciate your input and comments.
Wishing you an organized day, sprinkled with unexpected, spontaneous generosity.
