Customer Service your single biggest factor to success

I have not been on this band wagon for some time, but some events closer to home have led me to once again drive home the importance of customer service.

From my experiences….A driver of one our delivery vehicles made a call about prioritising deliveries that had to be made. The result is that he delivered packages in the incorrect order resulting in late deliveries to a client.  The client accepted our error with the assurance that we would not have a repeat of the process.  Crucially to me I learnt two valuable lessons:

1) We have spent a huge amount of time on understanding our clients business and trying to find solutions for them that benefit them.  In this process we have been able to enrich our business and at the same time deliver innovative and very often cost efficient solutions to them.  Through doing this we have built up a trusting relationship, which enables us to “tell it like it is” and therefore enables the “forgiveness”, if you like, of the odd mistake.

2) My second lesson out of this, never assume that the people that work with you in your organisation share the same passion as you do for a client. Ensure always that you have a process in place to follow up on issues, regardless of how big or small. A driver needs to be empowered to make decisions, but never in isolation and never without a plan. I would suggest that there are many businesses out there that are flying by the seat of their pants.

Finally, the point of this post, customer service and knowledge of your client will provide you with the insight that you need to deliver the best you can. If you provide the highest level of customer service, then you will have the advantage over your competition and you should emerge victorious. If you intend surviving in the tough times we face right now, then you had better pick up your game!!