One of the books Im working on this summer is a customer service book with Kathy Cuff and Vicki Halsey tentatively titled I CareDo You?: The Essentials of Delivering Legendary Service. A recent experience I had at my vacation home in upstate New York beautifully illustrates what we are trying to capture with this new book.
I was driving the car we use up here when the light came on and said I needed an oil change and the air pressure in the tire was down. So I took it over to a local service station about fifteen minutes from our cottage for an oil change and to have the tire checked. Bob, who owns the place, is a fabulous guy.
While my car is being looked at I asked, Hows business going? and Bob replied, Amazingly wellbut some of the other folks I talk to, its not so good. And I said, The reason, Bob, is because you are such a fabulous guy with your customers. You really care and so do your people.
He said, We really try. Our main goal is to do what the customers need and take care of them. Then his mechanic came to me and said, I just checked the car. The alert system didnt take into consideration that the car was sitting around all winter. You dont really need an oil change for another 4000 miles. I checked the oil and it looks fine, but you do need a New York State inspection, so Ill just give you that. I was out of there in about twenty minutes.
I went over to Bob as I was leaving and said, Heres a perfect example of what I was telling you. You could have gone ahead and changed the oilit would have been a lot better financially for youbut your guy said, No, I dont really need it.
Bob said, We find that when we take care of the customers it might cost us money in the short run, but it comes back in the long run.
Thats another great example of how a small business or any business thrives when its people have an I caredo you? mindset around customers.
So make sure you take care of your customers. And remember, we dont have just external customers; we have internal customers, too. Who are the people that use your services? How can you be most helpful to them?
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