Marriage isn’t just for couples anymore!  Marriage is important to excellent customer service too.  What I mean by that is this — to provide outstanding customer service we need to provide BOTH procedural prowess and personal play.  This video will explain more.

I shot this week’s tip from my car.  Why?  About 2 ½ weeks ago I parted ways with my Toyota after 11 years together.  Although it was a beautiful relationship where we covered over 144,00 miles together, it was a sad moment when I had to say goodbye.  It was time.

Andrei, the salesperson at the dealership, turned the typical car buying experience filled with stress, anxiety, and suspicion into one that was low stress, low pressure, and high customer service!  What Andrei did was provide both procedural AND personal service.  You see, customers want to know there are processes in place to provide organization not chaos.  Andrei did this by explaining their way of doing things so there weren’t  a lot of surprises. (This is the procedural part of the marriage.)  Your customers also want to know you care about them – specifically them.  Andrei did this by engaging in conversation about our wiener dog, my business, and all sorts of things important to us. (And this is the personal part of the marriage.)

My challenge for you is to determine what level of personal you are providing and what level of procedural you are providing.  Then ask yourself, “Is this enough for my customers?”  If not, you have some work to do!  But that is okay, because I can help!

See you next week for more on my experience with Andrei and how he provide excellent customer service!

QCS

*Note: The concept of “procedure and personal” is further explained in William Martin’s book “Quality Customer Service: Satisfy Customers – It’s Everybody’s Job” (Crisp Fifty Minute Series)