CLAREMORE, Okla. — No matter which provider you work for, own or operate, differentiating your product and service from the rest of the competition will determine the future health of your business.
Whether you are one of the large nationwide providers or just a smaller local or regional provider, it is important to always work toward being the best.
Since all of us get our product from virtually the same sources, although there are different levels of product design and performance, the difference then must come in the service and processing quality emanating from our plants and the service teams that hit the roads every day.
Pursuing excellence in this aspect of the business is the focus of this article, and I hope to spur some thoughts and desires to turn up the effort at your location to be the absolute best at what you do. Let’s review a few thought-provoking points.
RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF FANTASTIC CUSTOMER SERVICE
Did you ever call some provider and struggle with getting to a live person on the phone? Did you ever call and reach a person who just could not show any interest in helping?
Perhaps they were not the right person with the right responsibility, they got the call by mistake or something, but they just didn’t seem interested in helping you find the right person. That’s frustrating.
Excellent customer service starts when the phone rings or a customer walks in the front door. Every employee in the company should have at least some basic training on how to properly address a customer, answer a call if it comes their way and know what to do—even if it is just to drop what they’re doing and find the right person to help.
As a plant manager for part of my career, and later as a heavily traveled engineer, I often encountered customers away from the plant.
Taking down the notes of their issues or needs, getting their contact information and then following up by getting that information to the right person at the right location was an important part of my role in customer service, even though it wasn’t in my title.
By having all your employees trained in at least the basics of what to do in these situations, you can begin the process of making your customers fans of your company and keep them for life.
BE ON TIME
Nothing would chap my hide more than to walk into a plant, my plant or any others I had reason to be at, and see that the plant team didn’t do what they needed. That is, have all the products produced for a given day, ready and loaded out for delivery.
To see route service teams in the plant at 6 a.m. folding towels or rolling mats because the plant didn’t have them ready should cause your management teams to take stock of their focus on the work, systems and processes to track the needs, and finding ways to fulfill those needs.
Being on time with product readiness is critical to getting your delivery teams off on a great start to their day. These customer-facing employees deserve that.
Your delivery personnel, likewise, should assure their customers know when to expect them and live up to those delivery expectations and demands.
Working with your customers to ensure delivery windows fit the needs of the customer (like not delivering to a restaurant during the lunch rush) will let your customers know you are committed to helping them be successful in their business as well as yours.
PROVIDE A FIRST-CLASS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Never forget who pays the bills. This can get lost in the day-to-day work we all do, but it is the customer who provides the revenue for us to run the operation, pay for maintenance and new equipment, and provide job security.
Consequently, every interaction with your customer needs to leave them with the feeling that they are important, that they matter and that you appreciate them. Anything short of that and you’ve failed.
Dropping a delivery and running without taking those few precious minutes to visit with the customer to ensure their needs are being met is simply a fast lane to lost business.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Volumes can be written and taught about customer service, building rapport, systems and process design that is customer-focused, and the training involved in this aspect of the business.
But the bottom line is that every employee, no matter what role they fill in your business, must ensure that customers are held in the highest regard and are the reason we exist.
Growing your business depends on that!
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
