Hellos and Goodbyes
Hellos and Goodbyes, Seminars - 1 Comment
The ultimate reason to be nice to a customer
Hermes guiding the departed Myrrhine
Not that it comes down to this often, in most lines of work. But an ultimate reason to be kind to a customer (or, for that matter, a vendor) is the off chance it’ll be the last time you interact.
Opening the Times one bright morning I saw what no business owner ever wants to see: my customer’s face looking back at me from the obits. A customer we were all proud to work with here, a well-loved veteran of our industry.Somberly, I took a moment to look over my notes of our last interaction – hopeful, at least, that we had done right by him.
Here’s what I found looking over my notes: a project that had actually started with a small bump, and a customer who was gracious in giving us a chance to make things right. On what nobody could have known was to be his last project.
To speak with precision, he made our error seem small and merely bumplike, because that was his way: starting out a letter of very valid grievance with “First the good stuff–your staff has been excellent” before getting to the meat of what needed to be addressed.
So the transaction felt roundly satisfactory in the end, through his gracious way of bringing our attention to the issue, and, I’m hopeful to think, our way of resolving it.
That’s a nice way of leaving things, because you’re a long time gone.
- What level of service do you provide? Show them from “Hello.”
- No food, no drink (and no customers) allowed!
- Barriers to entry bar more customers than you think.
- Google & Wikipedia (not you) decide where prospects enter your site. Roll out the red carpet anyway!
- Department of First and Last Impressions
- Service begins when a customer comes in contact with you (not the other way around).
- A warm welcome worth $100 million
- First, I’ll need to blindfold you (and teach you about serial positions)
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