Superior Customer Service: Does it Make or Break a Deal?

Feb 23

MikeGeneral Business Practices No Comments

What do Nordstrom, Southwest Airlines, and Marriott Hotels all have in common?  Outstanding customer service.  These three companies are frequently written up in magazines, newspapers, and other media outlets for their excellent customer superior.  While I am a very large supporter of Southwest, my fiance is a Nordstrom junkie.  It’s always great to have her come home with a smile on her face after another pleasant visit to Nordstrom. When I see the receipt, it’s another story…

What value do you place on superior service?  Does it make or break a business deal?  For me, it certainly does.  Last month, I was finishing up  the details for the rehearsal dinner for my fiance and I’s upcoming wedding.  I had a few questions so I called the Director of Special Events at the rehearsal dinner venue.  Nobody answered, so I left a voicemail.  Voicemail – no problem, right?  Sure, it wouldn’t be if the voicemail was actually returned in a timely manner.  To refrain from looking like an over bearing husband-to-be, I gave this person a few days to call back.  A few days go by, and nothing.  I called again, left another voicemail.  This time, I put an email in as well.  A few days go by again, no response.  “Do they care about my business?”  “Am I ever going to be contacted back?”  “Is this lady going to screw up one of the most important events of my life?”  “Why do I have to try so hard to give someone my money!?”  After letting a couple of weeks pass, I took a trip to the eastern shore where the venue is located.  Go figure, the Director of Special Events was not in.  “Does this person ever work?!”  I kindly asked to speak with a manager to ensure I receive SOME level of service after over an hour’s drive.  Instead of a manager, I got the owner.  “Wow, this is great! This will definitely be sorted out now,” I thought.  After hearing my story of attempts, the owner rudely replied, “keep trying, there is nothing I can do.”  Just like that, I was send on my way.  Finally, two weeks later (about five weeks after my initial voicemail) I receive a response.  Just as quickly as I was shoved out the door in the restaurant, I hung up the phone.  “Thanks but no thanks; we’ll be hosting our event somewhere that actually wants our business.”

Superior customer service is key.  As a person that appreciates it, I ensure that Reef Light follows in the footsteps of Nordstrom, Southwest Airlines, and Marriott.  Never have we lost a job due to poor customer service.  As a matter of fact, we’ve won quite a few jobs for superior customer service and communication well before the project is kicked off.  If service, communication, or responsiveness is lacking in the beginning, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s going to get any better as the project goes on.

The Buzz about Buzz

Feb 11

JeffUncategorized No Comments

Since I’ve been snowed in over the past week, I’ve found myself using my iPhone more frequently while I sit around with cabin fever.  To my surprise, I saw the Google buzz icon when doing a search, along with a new search interface on my phone.  Never having seen that before, I click on it, did some more research, and came to find out about a new Google product….without having read about it in hyped up articles months before the rollout – unheard of! Contrast this with the Google Wave rollout, which was hyped as a game changer, and “the new face of email for the future”.  Well, who knows if Google Wave will eventually catch on, but just from my personal experience (and my fellow Google Wave friends), it was all hype and not much value.  On the other hand, I actually like Google buzz, a lot.  I’ll admit I’m not the Twitter-er type, finding it time consuming and a bit self absorbed to constantly update people on “my status”, but I think I’ll actually use Google buzz.  It makes perfect sense to me to include it as a part of Gmail, where I do most of my personal and work communication, through email and chat.  I think Google buzz fills a gap where it may be a topic of thread that isn’t email worthy, i.e. “I’m excited about all of this snow, here are some pictures”, but allows you to be more casual as you would in a chat, with a large group of people.  I’ll have to keep playing with it a bit more and see if the value holds up in the long term, but so far so good.  Maybe Google should take a cue from this roll-out and not hype up the next product prematurely!