Recently I was asked a question: “What do think people remember about you, your company or your service?” The answer might surprise you:  Customers remember particularly bad experiences and never forget those and they will remember outstanding, great experiences. Everything that is in between, they simply forget. Later in this post are two stories that serve to illustrate this point.

For this reason just plain old good customer service is not enough any more.  You got to make yourself stand out. When you and your customer part ways it should be due to them no longer requiring your services, either of you moving or another similar reason. You should not part on bad terms. Your customer should be so happy with your service that they still recommend you, regardless whether they still use your services or not.

Just recently I happened to see somebody who used to come to my yoga class. I hadn’t seen her for a while. She told me that she had moved out of the area and couldn’t attend my class any more. She really missed coming and wished she could still attend my class, the replacement she had found just wasn’t the same.  Do you think she would refer somebody to my class? Do you think she would come to a one off event that I organise? Do you think she would give me a testimonial? I certainly hope so!

The following is a true story:

I had to hire a car for a day. I rang Nerd’s Car Hire Service (not his real name) He was local, it would be convenient for me to pick the car up from there. The first day I tried ringing during normal business hours, nobody answered the phone, no message, nothing it just kept ringing till I gave up. This should have been enough warning for me to go elsewhere!

However, I persevered because of the convenience of the location and the cheap prices he advertised. On the second day, an office girl answered the phone. She quoted me a particular price which carried a very high excess in case of an accident. I asked her whether I could pay more and decrease this excess. She didn’t know, so she called “Nerd” to the phone. I could hear him mumble and grumble in the background. I started my sentence by saying: “I just spoke to your secretary and she quoted me $XX for hiring a car…” well, I didn’t get any further. “She underquoted you by $22 per day, and this money is coming out of her pay, every cent of it!”

What do you think I did? What do you think I will do in future? What do you think I do whenever somebody needs a hire car?

Till next time,

Connie and Charly

from

http://www.stretchyourmindandbody.com