When did you last deliver

more than you promised?

…and threw in a “Thank You For The Opportunity!”?

This is indeed customer service coming in the back door and, hopefully, your answers to the questions above are: “Yes.” “Today!” and “Yes.” 

Like the family that prays and plays together stays together, the business with a consistent gratitude attitude wins a multitude of latitude from customers, prospects and the industries, professions and communities it serves.

“yeah, yeah, yeah!” you already know all that, and “so what?” you reply. Here’s what: succeeding in business today reduces itself to the simplest –and probably oldest– positive practice on Earth: GRATITUDE.

If you think otherwise, you are not a realist. If you and your people are so tangled up in CRM hardware, software, and underwear that you are missing the daily, hourly, opportunities to build and boost genuine customer service bases of operation, you are taking two steps backward to go one step forward. That isn’t going to cut the mustard in this economy.

Thanking people is not a complicated practice. Oh, and it’s free!

“Yeah, well my staff and I always say thank you to customers and it doesn’t do squat!” 

Hey, that’s a good start, but if you’re not seeing increased loyalty, repeat sales, and steady increases in revenues, you might want to take a closer look at HOW you and your people are saying thank you.

I walked into a failing grocery store this week and had checkers, baggers, shelf stockers, front door greeters and department managers falling all over themselves trying to make my celery purchase be the most memorable experience of my life. They did everything but drool with trying to make sure my celery was spectacular and that I truly had everything I wanted and needed from their store.

Yucht! Finger down my throat. A quick trip for the missing chicken salad ingredient and you’d have thought I was Justin Bieber’s father, or the inventor of Silly Bands. Here’s the deal. The overkill was obnoxious. It was insincere, and I didn’t appreciate being the target of some mismanaged customer service training program.

A pleasant smile and genuine thank you at the cash register would have been more than sufficient. Instead, I was ogled, called “Darlin'” got a 20-cent discount at checkout for having not bothered to bring my little marketing research discount tag, “awarded” a scratch-off ticket to win $1, and had someone actually offer to carry my celery to the car! 

Okay, they got me laughing, but I’m not going back there. 

Next, give a little thought to the idea that since anybody can be connected to anybody these days, it is essential that small businesses act neighborly but think globally.

Anyone is capable of giving or sending you business. That certainly includes your inner circles of family and friends, but it also extends outward to employees, suppliers and vendors, geographic and industry neighbors, service professionals you engage, and all the communities you serve.

In other words, do you say thank you every day to customers, but not employees? Do you thank sales reps for visiting you? Do you thank delivery people and public service people who visit or make regular or special calls on you? Do you thank people for complaining? (“Thank you for calling this issue to our attention. What can we do to make it right for you?” goes a very long way!)

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

God Bless America and God Bless America’s Troops.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!