Innovation through excellence

Innovation through

by Paul Barrs

It seems to be the buzzword for the time. Innovate. Be different. Set yourself apart. And yes, these are great business strategies and ideal if possible. But before you go ahead and set your plans in place, I have one more simple suggestion.

Let me explain….

Last week, while having coffee with a friend, I listened while he shared with me his frustration at how one company whom he’d been dealing with seemed to be ignoring him. It was a customer complaint, something which he wasn’t happy with and hadn’t been happy with for some time. He’d sent an email to them. He’d contacted them through their social media Facebook page. He’d even tried phoning, but they were a big company. They seemed to have better things to do. Whether or not they’d agree with his dispute is irrelevant. The fact was simple. The systems that they had in place to deal with customer complaints were pretty much non-existent. Let’s compare that to my own situation two weeks earlier, where after attending a conference on the Gold Coast, I returned home to check my credit card statement and noticed an extra debit of $13.50, two days after the conference. Of course, being curious, knowing that I hadn’t knocked off any of their cups, glasses, or silverware, I rang them to find out what the charge was for. It took a little while to get through to the right person, but once there he sorted through his financial records and asked me, “Did you happen to have lunch around the corner, at XYZ Tavern?” I said, “Yes, I did.” He said, “We own it. That’s why the charge showed up as us.” Ah. Now, I understand. There was an opportunity there for that situation to go quite wrong. But instead it was handled with care and dealt with swiftly and efficiently. I call these things customer service 101, but it seems to me, more and more often, these things become moments of excellence. Why? Because so few of us actually do them! Do what? Provide awesome, unbelievable, incredibly awe-inspiring customer service. Yes, we all like to think we can. But in today’s age, with the internet, computers and smart technologies, we’ve become less connected with our customers when we should be closer; and we respond in kind.

Tell me this – what’s your gut feeling? Should a business’s Facebook page be used for communication? For understanding? For sharing? For engaging? The answer is simple – “Yes, all of the above.”

I attended a business lunch recently where the speaker shared this concept: their business’s Facebook page was for LISTENING. Ah. What a concept! Innovation through excellence. Doing what we should be doing, but have forgotten to do at the same time. How often is it, when you finish dealing with a customer, that you then send them a survey or a questionnaire form to say, “Hi. Thanks very much. How did we do? Please let us know.” Rarely? Occasionally? From time to time? How about with every customer?

I do. At least, I try to. Even I’ve fallen short in this, which is why I say in this matter of customer service, we can innovate with excellence just by DOING IT! We’ve fallen short of the bar. We haven’t measured up to the mark. Though in our hearts we feel we have, sadly it’s rarely true.

So my call to action today for you is this: when you take a moment to sit down and have that morning tea or afternoon coffee… stop… pause just a few moments with pen and paper and ask yourself, “Where are the touch points with my customers after the sale?” What is it that you do with your customers once the sale has been completed, after the money is in your pocket? Do you still care for them? Do you still look after them? Do you have any of your innovations on that back end? Or are they all up the front, looking for new business? Someone once said to me, “Paul, if you want to be successful in business, you have to be different.” So here’s my challenge to you in the areas of customer service, where we are all sadly lacking. Be different. Be awesome and innovate with excellence.

Paul Barrs has been helping local businesses online since 2002. He has spoken at local, national and international seminars as an authority on internet business strategy. Looking for better results online? Contact Paul by visiting www.PaulBarrs.com/bm