What drives me as a real estate professional, and what I perceive of others as well in the ActiveRain community, is the desire and the opportunity my profession provides to serve others, to contribute my efforts, knowledge, experience, incite and abilities in enabling customers (clients) to successfully meet their goals, whether thay be personal, family and/or business. I believe that there are certain key principles that need to be understood, accepted and followed for establishing and maintaining successful customer service relations. Fortunately, I learned the basics from my father while growing up.
About the time that I was finishing third grade and entering fourth grade, my father started his own retail business in Chester County, Pennsylvania. It catered to the local agricultural industry and also to the general community. I remember the work and excitement -- my father bore all the real stress -- of preparing for the grand opening: cleaning up the store front (it was formerly an old Studebaker dealership), installing and setting up the shelving and office supplies, stocking the shelves with the newly arriving inventory and waiting on my first customer. While we sold agricultural related supplies including chemicals, it was more of a general store as we eventually handled a wide variety of product lines from paints, tires, lawn equipment, hardware, work clothes to even used cars. (BTW, because of that we had some great cars that we were able to drive and/or own, experiences I'll save for sharing in another post.)
I eventually performed every possible business task, including shipping and receiving, inventory management, order taking, delivery (we got to drive the trucks around on the grounds to load starting at age 12, then on the road when of age), service clerk and bookkeeping. Sometimes, when everyone was away delivering or doing other off-site tasks and we were manning the store ourselves, it seemed that we ended up having to do all the tasks at the same time!
While all the family helped in some way with the business, over the years we also had full and part-time employees with whom we worked side-by-side. Many ended up being life-long friends of the family even after they moved on to other jobs.
My father instilled in me a sense of service to the customer that has stood the test of time and proven itself over and over. It is very simple and nothing new, he was just consistent in it's application. It was based on the following principles, which permeate my attitude about customer (or client) service.
First, the Golden Rule is just that, a rule, not a hypothesis or theory. He strongly believed in it and affirmed it daily. Treating everyone that came into the store with honesty, fairness and respect.
"The customer is king" and especially his mantra, "The customer is always right" are two phrases that are indelibly burned into my brain.
Treating the customer as king meant that the needs and business interests of the customer were put ahead of our own business interests unless they also impacted the customer. It did not mean that we were customer door mats. (And we did not subjugate the importance of family as we had set times established for the business and then we had plenty of private time during the week for experiencing and developing other aspects of our life. We attempted to maintain a balance, although there were times when you had to put in extra hours because of the season or heavy customer demands.) Once we made a specific commitment to a customer, we did whatever it took to see it through to completion. My father always helped us understand that as you help your customers they will, in effect, help you.
By saying "the customer is always right" he meant, and we all understood, that even if the customer is wrong, in the customer's mind he is right -- so you need to handle his point of view with respect, placing his needs before your business needs or personal ego and correct the situation if, and as soon as, possible...And learn from it so it doesn't happen again.
My father also enjoyed talking with customers, and developing long-term relationships and communicated regularly with most of them. An important beneft that a retail business can provide to customers is the ability to extend credit, especially in an agricultural community. Supplies and equipment are needed to plant, tend and harvest the crops in order to obtain the cash to pay back what are in effect business loans, so the store can meet it's own financial obligations and purchase more inventory that will be needed for the next season. What has this to do with developing long term relationships? Let me explain...
A negative aspect of most businesses that extend credit -- collections -- was conducted by my father weekly. On his "collecting day" he would make the rounds of major credit accounts and seek a payment. Normally, most people don't really want to see a bill collector on their door step. But my father made it a positive event and most looked forward to his visit, even knowing that his visit would "cost" them. Customers often invited him in to stay for lunch, refreshments and always enjoyed sharing their situation, good or bad. I sometimes accompanied him on the trips -- partly for the experience and partly for him to show he needed the money to buy groceries for his growing family -- but, every visit was always enjoyable. I remember a lot of laughing and joking, sharing about family, business or crops, problems they were concerned about and discussing how much they could spare that week for payment and what their future plans and needs would be.
Even when a customer had a difficult time financially they were never treated in a demeaning or threatening way, yet my father was always able to keep a good handle and control on the receivables. His weekly collecting day allowed him several benefits: it developed deep, long-term customer friendships and loyalty; it helped him understand customer needs and motivations; it allowed him to keep up with current business opportunities, identify potential new business and prepare for future orders; it allowed him to identify problem situations very quickly before they got out of hand -- whether that also meant limiting credit or extending more credit to get past a special situation; and it allowed for him to keep direct tabs on local industry news and changing trends. Many times customers would inform him of needs for items he did not carry, but he would often leave with commitments for additional purchases if he would stock the items. His focus was always on the situation and needs of the customer. He did not share confidential information (i.e, did not gossip), so he was always well regarded and trusted in their midst.
Our customers included first generation immigrants for whom English was not their first language, transplants from poor areas of Appalachia, pedigreed locals, those of different faiths and races, some with barely a high school education or that could only sign with an X, those with college and advanced education, startup and established business people. He treated them all with respect and usually learned from each. When they came into our store, they were a "Customer" who we were there to serve. And we supplied quality products and services that the customers wanted because we listened and responded promptly to the needs of the customers.
Despite my own involvement :-), the business survived, supporting a family of 7 and employees through the years as most of us grew up and went on to other careers and our own families. My father was never interested in expanding to new locations, just focusing on figuring what suppliers, service and/or products he could add or change to meet the needs of our customer base and local community. He was successful in reaching his goals and satisfied with his life and relationships. The business still exists today, run by two of my brothers who officially took over after my father passed away a few years ago. They are adding their own flavor to the business based on the foundation he provided.
After college, I went on to pursue other interests, including starting several of my own businesses, providing technical consulting to principles of small and mid-size business, automating customer service centers and setting up corporate headquarters facilities and infrastructures or being part of other businesses that supplied services and products to top Fortune 100 companies. During those times I have never observed or experienced a business or professional who provided needed products or services that failed with, or succeeded in lasting without, observing in some form these principles of customer service which I have discussed.
And, thanks to my father, those principles have guided me in real estate and business brokerage dealings in support of clients which I enjoy, yielding a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction in the accomplishment of successful results.
In summary, the keys to successful Customer Service results (in no particular order except for #1) as taught by my father are:
1. Follow the Golden Rule.
2. Conduct your business relationships with honesty, fairness and respect.
3. Treat your customer as king.
4. Understand that the customer is always right (even when he's "wrong").
5. Develop and enjoy long-term relationships and on-going communications with customers (clients).
6. Listen and respond promptly to the needs of customers (clients).
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Copyright 2006 by Timon, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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