An undisclosed number of years back (seemingly before someone figured out that tires should be round) when our family car needed gasoline, we pulled into a ‘service station.’ The first thing that would happen was a friendly man dressed in a neat uniform magically appeared with bubble gum or suckers for the kids.
Next, while he pumped our fuel, he would also check vital elements under the hood of our car, wash the windows, adjust the tire pressure, and even sweep out the interior with a little pocket-sized broom.
Our father then paid the man an average of 27 cents per gallon of gasoline, and again we were on our way, riding comfortably along in the sure knowledge that our car was safe, clean, and ready to roll.
That was service . . . with a smile. And the service station man knew that when we needed gasoline again, we would come back to his place of business.
While this story may seem completely out of context with regard to Internet business, we maintain that it is right on target. In performing his special services, the service station man was making an investment in a repeat customer. He was making an investment in the long term profitability and ultimate success of his own business.
In an essentialy faceless and impersonal commercial venue like the Internet, we find the buying experience all to often to be cold, distant, and devoid of human qualities. We grant that it is more difficult to inject personal contact into an online transaction, yet it remains that most customers would prefer to do business with another human than to put money into a vending machine. Therefore, it is in our own best interest as online business people to find ways to humanize our websites and our interaction with customers.
It also behooves us to understand that giving good customer service is just as much about willingness and good attitude as it is going to the extra effort in being sure the customer is satisfied.
Practically everyone has been faced at one time or another with a poor personal attitude from another businessperson. Perhaps we’ve been made to feel as though we were being accorded some special privilege in making our purchases.
The service station man might have performed the same added services to our automobile, but with an air of arrogance and contempt. That being the case, he would have lost a customer rather than strengthen his own bottom line. In retrospect, we feel sure that the man was sometimes not in the mood to project a happy and positive personal image. Yet he always did so, regardless. His attitude toward himself and toward his customers would allow nothing less.
We believe that customer service should precede the sale as well. Anyone who visits our website, whether they spend a nickel or not, is deserving of the same level of courteous consideration afforded to a long time established customer. Too frequently we have found it difficult to get response to a simple question from another online merchant, unless first we openly waved a fist full of money. That, dear reader, isn’t service; at least not under the terms we have learned that define it.
Nearing four decades ago, our first business mentor gave us a glistening pearl of wisdom. That one little pearl has earned us more money than any other business precept we have since practiced, while letting us feel good about ourselves and our business endeavours.
He said simply, ‘Dan, take care of the customers first. You’ll soon find that the profit margin will take care of itself.’ That old man knew how to invest wisely.
Click here to sign up for FREE B2B newsletters from murdok!
Dan B. Cauthron runs several websites and publishes his 100%
original and highly opinionated *Revenew QuikTips* online
whenever he has something significant to say. To subscribe
please visit: http://DanBCauthron.com Dan also operates:
http://Earn-Revenew.com and http://SlideInADSGenerator.com
