The Secret to Growing any Business..

...that gets missed by way too many people...

At a recent Workshop, I asked the audience a simple question..

"What business are you in..?"

The answers include..

Financial Services, Tax Planning, Banking and Accounting...

WRONG...!!

We are all in the Customer Service Business; or at least we should be...

It doesn't matter whether you are in the Service or Manufacturing sector; the product or service you deliver will be judged not only on it's merits but the context in which it is experienced...

A Tale of Two Hotels...

First Banbury...

Travelling as much as we do we get to experience lots of hotels, restaurants and travel related industries with varying degrees of success...

First rule for travelling is..

Be a good Customer - play by the rules, be courteous and polite and don't be a primadonna...

In Banbury, UK we stayed at chain hotel in the centre of the town - a lovely looking manor house, so far so good..

The room was lovely, clean spacious and well designed, reception was easy and friendly; everything seemed to be going well..

Then we went to the bar for a pre-dinner drink; and it went down hill fast...

There was no one behind the bar, one of the locals said that we had to wave at the security motion sensor to get the attention of the staff...

After a few minutes a flustered girl appeared and took the order...

One glass of Champagne and a Gin & Tonic...

After another few minutes and some stamping around I was informed that they didn't have any Champagne, and asked if Prosecco would do instead...

I said that it would be fine - in the UK Champagne is clearly an exotic drink...

Another few minutes went by and the drinks were brought to our table.

The Prosecco was room temperature and flat, so Lynn asked for a replacement.

"We don't have any chilled; would you like some ice in it...?"

Errrrr - No...!

A bland, room temperature Chardonnay turned up as replacement - the supervisor started to roll her eyes, shake her head and stamp around huffing and puffing...

The Chardonnay was warm too and was slammed onto the table without a word being spoken, then she stormed off mumbling something about the bloody French...

Now...

Having no Champagne, and warm Prosecco is no cause for alarm. Even warm Chardonnay can be termed a "first world problem" even in Banbury...

Things go wrong in hotels and as seasoned campaigners we know that; it wasn't the warm Prosecco, it was the manner in which it was handled that was wrong...

Next Hotel - Macedonia.

The restaurant this time was not part of the actual hotel, we had to walk through a thunderstorm about 500 m to get there...

The restaurant didn't take credit cards so the hotel owner phoned ahead and arranged that she would pay for the meal and then we could pay her back as we checked out the day after..

The restaurant was lively; people chatting, drinking and playing cards. The locals were intrigued by us and everyone wanted to know where we were from and where we were going...

The staff were really friendly and nothing seemed like too much bother..

We ordered Filet Steak with all the trimmings, a bottle of local red wine and some local beer too; at those prices we could afford it...!

When the meal turned up - we actually got a Pork Chop with a square of Burger Cheese, and a Fried Egg on top...

When I said - "This is not Filet Steak..."

The Owner simply replied...

"My friend, you are in Macedonia and in Macedonia, this is Filet Steak..."

He then gave us some local vodka to celebrate and some home made apple pie by way of an an apology...

We smiled and had a great evening...

The Difference...?

It's not just the quality of the product, but the context in which it the product is delivered that makes the difference - both locations screwed up, but because the team in Macedonia did it with a smile, and good grace; plus they offered us apple pie and vodka too...

They won hands down...

We need to focus on both the Relationship we develop with the customer, and the quality of the Result the product or service itself delivers....


Here's the rule...

In order to deliver high levels of Service, both the Results and the Relationship need to be taken into account...

If there is Zero Relationship but a good Result - the service will score Zero...

If there is Zero Result but a great Relationship - the service will score Zero...

Customer Service is by far the best way to grow any business, all it takes is a little imagination, training and implementation; and yet so many people ignore it...

If you'd like to find out how David could help you and your team develop their Customer Service standards, create happy clients and make more money...

Then just drop him a note to davidholland@resultsrulesok.com