Merchandise Concepts Article #52

Your Business Success Depends on Your Customer Service

By Anne M. Obarski

How differently would you run your business is you knew that the success or failure of it rested heavily on your customer service?

I was on vacation recently and observed first hand how the attitude, knowledge and response time of employees can shape a customers opinion of a business. I traveled to a small island in the West Indies that I had only read about in travel brochures. I was looking for an island paradise where I could unwind and let the world just melt away. I found that place! But I also found more.

The island of St. Kitts is breathtakingly beautiful. The ten seat plane that brings you to the island seems to hover over the topaz blue waters of the Caribbean. The airport is small but efficient. It is at the taxi stand that I learned how important customer service is to this island.

Taxi drivers are plentiful and I quickly found myself with a driver named Bouncer. Bouncer looked to be on the other side of fifty and had lived in St. Kitts all his life. His full time, six day a week job, is that of running tourists all over the island. As I later found out, Bouncer was known to all of the taxi drivers on the island. He was known for going after business!

Bouncer informed me that the islands' main source of income used to come from the production of sugar cane but it is now changing its focus to that of tourism. At this "ah-ha" moment, I decided to be extremely observant of everyone I came in contact with to see if they were "selling" their island in a positive way.

I asked myself, what would I do different in my business if the majority of my business was based on customer service. My answer was to use Bouncer as my prototype and here are three things he taught me.

Attitude: Bouncer had an attitude of a shrewd yet kind business man. He was upbeat and friendly and always on time. He anticipated a need before it surfaced. He was always positive, always.

Knowledgeable: Bouncer knew where he could make money. He knew the flight schedule of every plane that came into the airport. He knew his "customer" and he knew what he could offer and he "sold" it. On the way from the airport he pointed out great restaurants and points of interest along the way.
He carefully mentioned that he offered a tour of the island and would customize it to whatever you wanted to see. I took him up on his offer and I was amazed at the knowledge and history that he was able to share about his island. I don't know if I could do half as well in the little city I live in, let alone my country!

Ask For Referrals: Bouncer asked for the business and asked for referrals. As a taxi driver, Bouncer would see the same tourist maybe a handful of times while they were on the island. But they would be gone and replaced daily with new, fresh faces. Repeat and referral customers may last a few days or a few weeks. This seemed like a hard business to make a living at but Bouncer seemed to thrive on making each experience in his taxi, like his passengers were the only people he had ever taken to the airport or to the beach or on a tour.

He became that shrewd business man again when he handed you his card with his name on it and said, "Please share this with someone if you were pleased with my service."

As I was relaxing on my vacation I couldn't help but think about these customer service lessons and how important they are when business is tough. You may ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is my attitude and everyone who works for me positive, upbeat and contagious?

2. Do I and my employees anticipate the needs of my customers? Are we knowledgeable in every area of the business and do we over deliver on our customer's expectations.

3. Do we ask for the business? Are we shameless in telling our potential clients about our business and are we proud about what we do and who we do it for?

4. Do we ask for referrals? What an easy way to get more business than to ask someone to refer us. How often do we second guess our customers and assume that they might not give us the glowing report behind our back that they did face to face?

As Bouncer took me to the airport, he asked if he had done a good job. He did something that all good business owners should do; he invited me back to his beautiful island that he was so proud to show off.

What do you think I said?

Anne M. Obarski is The “Eye on Performance.” Anne works with organizations who want to focus on becoming CONTAGIOUS! Anne provides keynotes and breakout training sessions on how to develop the right strategies to effectively keep your customers coming back and referring others along the way. For your Free Business Health Quiz, email Anne at anne@merchandiseconcepts.com. With the words “BHQuiz” in the subject line. Visit her website at www.MerchandiseConcepts.com

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