The Meaning and Impact of World Class Customer Service

We left off with customer service in the last post, let’s just pick up where we left off.

I do a lot of consulting on “world class” and “WOW” customer service. So I think and write and I’m constantly on the look-out for it. Mostly I experience the bad stuff. On those rare occasions when I experience the good stuff, it really has meaning and impact. Plus, the simplicity of it really hits home.

My experience with contractors has not been historically positive. I wouldn’t say I have any glaring nightmares to report – probably saved by an abundance of project management. I would say the contractors I’ve encountered in the past have been the wham bam types – slap it together and get it done exactly as you’ve been told. Over the years, I’ve learned to be present and available at all costs when home improvement projects are going on. If nothing else, just maintain a presence and check in periodically to let the improvers know of your interest. So I make it a point to – at all costs – clear the schedule and maintain presence and availability. This does help the quality of the final product.

In addition to maintaining a presence,  you as a project sponsor can do some things to foster better customer service. After the tear down was complete and Tony and his crew started constructing, it was clear I had a special crew on my hands. (Being able to distinguish that so quickly should also tell you something about the quality and caliber of their work and their ethic.) My thinking was the LEAST I could do was to have a cooler full of refreshments on hand at all times.

Little things make a big difference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first few days of demolition I was out there getting my hands dirty with them. I had half of the roof torn off and cleaned up by the time they were called in. With these little considerations for each other, our relationship began to reciprocate. What intrigues me about world class customer service is the questions of how do you teach quality? How do you come to the point of wanting to do great work? How do you develop the values of wanting to take great care and interest in someone else’s property?

For the most part, Tony and his crew provided exceptional service day in and day out – just in the way they went about their work. Steady, diligent, quick-but-not-in-a-hurry efficiency. They took (and earned) a lunch break, but that was about it. They were courteous throughout the day, and cleaned up at the end of the day. For the most part, they lived and breathed customer service every day by doing diligent and quality work that would last for years while looking great and functioning well.  

It’s when they needed more information that their customer service won awards. I think they could tell I wasn’t the world’s foremost authority on all things construction. But I also suspect they could tell I had more than a passing interest in the project.  So when they had questions, we developed an ability to have a back and forth exchange, until the solution was something we could both live with and approve of. Again, they cared enough to tell me when my thinking was naive of off-base.

There is an element of providing service that is priceless. Look to provide the kind of service that is life-altering. I would have never come up with the solutions that Tony suggested for the sunroom roof. It simply wasn’t in my way of thinking. By the act of taking the time and having the interest to ask a simple question, he altered our home, its function and aesthetics forever!

What does it mean to have someone who takes an interest in you and your well-being? What is the impact of a service provider who cares enough to ask questions and treat you with respect even though you’ll never have the skills or knowledge they have?

I think you’re getting a sense of what it means to me. I would encourage all of us to think about these questions and I am interested in your thoughts on them or perhaps some customer service stories of your own. What, if anything,  did you do to foster the service and the reciprocal nature of the relationship. Please comment, and let’s learn from each other.

In the final analysis, this stuff couldn’t be more important – keep in mind who will be getting my first call on my next project. Never forget who will be my first referral when a friend or neighbor asks, “Who do you know………”

Priceless!

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