Customer service is what I am all about

I have been involved in various businesses and jobs since I was 12 years old.  These days, not many kids start working at such a young age.  They should, though.  I know, I know, I’ll be accused of forcing kids into labor and such, but what I am saying is that kids can learn a lot by getting into doing jobs, work, business and such at a young age.

One of the things that I learned from my first mentor was that Customer Service is the most important thing about any business.  Actually, I’ll expand it and say that Customer Service is the most important aspect of any part of your life.

Now, in some parts of your life, you may have to look at the word “customer” a little differently.

Marriage?  Your spouse is your customer.  Treat your customer right, and you’ll have a customer for life.

Friendship?  Your friends are your customers.

It applies to any kind of relationship.  However, this blog is about business, so let’s focus on that.

I contend that the very best way to keep a customer for life is through making mistakes.  What?  That doesn’t make sense, right?  Well, first, let’s all agree that everybody makes mistakes.  No matter how hard you try, how much you concentrate, you will make a mistake sooner or later.  It is how you deal with that mistake that will decide if you just lost a customer, or strengthened your relationship with that customer.

I have had incidents where I, or one of my employees has made a very serious mistake and a customer told me that we had lost his business for life.  He would never shop with us again.  Well, the gut reaction is to get mad, tell the person off, and say goodbye!  Forget him, right?  That’s not the way I do it.

First of all, consider that the reason that the customer is mad is because YOU made the mistake to begin with.  If you handle the situation right, you will not only keep the customer, you will also have a stronger relationship with him when he sees that you take care of mistakes.  Go out of your way to not only correct the mistake, but go above and beyond what the customer would expect!

Just as an example, I have a business where I sell flowers.  Roses and such.  Generally, we deliver these flowers to a man’s girlfriend in most cases.  If we make a mistake, the guy usually gets quite angry, because not only have we not done what he wanted, in many cases we might have even made him look bad to his girl.  That’s like playing with fire.  For example, let’s say that we delivered flowers that were not fresh, already wilted.  The lady tells the guy that the flowers were not so nice, then he gets angry at us, and says we can kiss his business goodbye.  We go out of our way, and we then delivery maybe 3 times the amount of FRESH flowers to the lady as our way of saying “we are sorry” to the customer.  Not only that, we tell the girl that it was her boyfriend who sent the additional flowers.  This not only corrects the problem, it makes the man look good!  You can bet, 9 times out of 10, the guy is so happy that he forgets all about his threat to start shopping elsewhere, and becomes even a better customer in the future.

Customer service is all about how you handle mistakes, which are inevitable.  Treat your customers good, step up to the plate and fix the problem when you made a mistake, and you will go far in business.  If you don’t do these things, your business may not survive long.

Innovate or die

A friend of mine has a saying - “Nothing lasts forever.”

How true is that statement?  Well, it’s very true!  I used to believe in it less than I do now, but events over the past few years have illustrated to me how true it is.  Both in my personal life and also in my business life things have happened that time and again show me that nothing lasts forever.

However, there are things that you can do to stretch the lifespan as long as possible out of whatever it is that you are trying to preserve.

Let’s look at business, since that is what this site is all about.  I have a business that I started up about 7 years ago.  It’s been a super business.  I have made some really nice money from this business.  It has kept me happy, healthy, with food on the table, etc.  There was a time when I thought that the business was invincible.  A couple of years ago, I decided to concentrate on the business less than I had been.  I thought that this particular business was so well established that it could prosper even just with the guidance of my staff.  Of course, I would keep an eye on it, but I would involve myself less and less in the day to day operations.

So, I set out on this path a couple of years ago.  It did very well for quite some time.  However, about a year ago, it started declining.  At first, such decline is virtually unnoticeable, because you just count it as a normal fluctuation, the regular ebb and flow of business.  But, it has continued to spiral downwards.  New competition came in.  We didn’t make many changes, just maintained the status quo.  That is my fault, because I put the thing on auto-pilot.

That is a huge mistake.

Now it is time for me to jump back in and get the business back on track.  Honestly, that is something that I enjoy doing.  I don’t enjoy running a business, but I enjoy innovating, making changes, etc.  That is part of the personality profile of a true entrepreneur.  Entrepreneurial people enjoy starting businesses, but then they tend to walk away when things are going smoothly.  That’s what I did.

So, I have come up with a list of innovations that I need to make to hopefully get my business back on track.  It won’t be an easy thing to do, but I am drawn to do it.

What about you?  Do you believe in the statement that I used as the title of this article?  Innovate or die.  Nothing lasts forever.  I just hope that through innovation I can prolong the life of this particular venture.

Adapt to your surroundings

When in business, or even in your daily life, if you want to be successful you need to consider those around you and make a decision about the possibility of molding yourself and your business to fit in with the local norm.  You won’t have to adapt local standards for every business, but for most you will need to do so.

Let’s face it, if you are in the business of becoming a clown at local kid’s birthday parties, you won’t want to change into the local norm.  The kids probably won’t be too excited if you come to the party in a business suit.  But, for other businesses, if you show up in a clown suit, you probably won’t get the job!

As you probably all know, I am an American, but I live in the Philippines.  If I tried to do everything the American way, most local people probably wouldn’t hire me to do local jobs.  If I try to blend a little of the Filipino way into by business, though, I am more likely to be successful.  I don’t have to be totally Filipino in my ways, as a matter of fact, if I did I probably would lose some of my value.

For instance, if I was doing business consulting locally, the local businessman might be hiring me so that he can get a bit more of American style business-practice into his business.  However, if I went totally American it might turn him off.  For example, here in the Philippines, the day is broken up between work, and three different breaks.  In the mid morning, they have “marienda” which means snacks.  Then, at noon there is lunch, followed by the afternoon marienda around mid-afternoon time.  In America, if it is a busy day, the business man might work straight through the day without even taking a lunch break.  If I consulted a business here to do that, they would be aghast and probably fire me.  If they accepted my advice, and instituted such a schedule many employees would quit. But, if I choose to adapt these important Filipino customs into my American style business methods, it might be a hit, and help the Filipino businessman make a better living.

You have probably heard the old saying - “When in Rome, do as the Romans do…” well, you don’t have to go 100%, but it is just a good idea to incorporate some of the Roman ways into the way you do business.  The results might surprise you!