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On the bright side the job I mentioned was the exception as I had my own wallpaper business for over 2 decades and was very successful. My clients were all referrals and decorators. I did go out of my way for them as well. I would leave the room cleaner than when I arrived and wash the baseboards, floors by hand so there was no residue of glue or water stains. I was very much a perfectionist in my work from start to finish. So that was very gratifying. That is what perhaps some business owners do not understand or value. The gratification of knowing you gave people the very best work / service you had to offer and they appreciated it. That is a very rewarding feeling.
80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers.
80% of your grief with unreasonable complaints comes from 20% of your customers.
Fortunately the two are not always the same.
A business intent on growth and just ignore that and the percentages will remain pretty much the same. Or you can concentrate on enhancing the customer satisfaction of the "good" customers and actively driving away, through poor service, the ones that generate constant expense through abuse of customer service.
The latter is taking on a certain vogue.
Department stores (even slightly upscale) are keeping track of customers habits. When a good customer has problem it gets fixed. When an expensive customer has a problem he/she/it finds little satisfaction though not an open suggestion to take the business elsewhere. But that's the desired result and it seems to be working. Total business growth slows but profit soars through eliminating costly problems.
Yes it is good to make them feel as if you are there to assist them. Not your behind the big desk and they are in little chair in front of you. When I worked in sales I would always take a chair and seat myself next to my customer rather than sit behind the desk across from them. It worked well because we were on equal ground in a visual sense. It does make a difference when they know you are working with them and are sincerely interested in their success. ( and happiness )
Yes it is good to make them feel as if you are there to assist them. Not your behind the big desk and they are in little chair in front of you. When I worked in sales I would always take a chair and seat myself next to my customer rather than sit behind the desk across from them. It worked well because we were on equal ground in a visual sense. It does make a difference when they know you are working with them and are sincerely interested in their success. ( and happiness )
It's interesting...about 5 years ago, we moved our department to a newly renovated building. We had a lot of say in the renovation and (in a battle with the college) - we were able to call a lot of shots in how it was designed. We looked at the main offices of several other departments that had been newly renovated. In all of them - there was some form of "seperation" between staff and those who came in, such as students. High desk tops or glass interfaces like tellers.
Our department has always been informal (we're Geology and Geography, kind of earthy folks) and we did not feel comfortable with that. I felt like it would create a seperation both physical and "status" that make students feel more seperated from us. We all agreed that was not what we wanted. We ended up choosing a very open floor plan, and next to each of our desks we had a comforatable chair. Every one was on the same level and relaxed - there was easy flow between desks and amongst people.
It worked for the students, the faculty and we, the staff and promoted a sense of equality and respect. I have never regreted our choices there
As a cop and lawyer my parameters were always well defined and the problems solving on a graduated scale. As a business owner "customer care " took on a whole different meaning where there was a great deal of flexibility and I was the "rainmanker" generating clients building relationships which would generate revenue and building a team that would service those clients and building relationships with the families of both clients and employees. This is where a philosophical approach helped a great deal. I need to establish the identity of the business, have that model fit in with a vast array of cultures depending on what industry the client was generated from and have staff understand the differences. For example, my longshoremen clients wanted the "Bronx" guy, the football players wanted leadership/coaching style, the models wanted my french cuffs, fedoras and seven fold ties. They all got that, but that was surface stuff. What they all received was was a sense of family when they walked through my door and that still carries through today. They knew that and they appreciated that. Once we established our relationship and became part of what I was doing there was no going back.
