Customer service - the face of your brand

This week was an interesting experience for me in the world of customer service. Some people came out of it with accolades and others should be ashamed of themselves. And even more interestingly, small business owners dropped the ball the most.

The staff at Mormac had cause to be on the phone with customer service departments from five large companies this week. By name, they are: Hewlitt Packard, Amtelecom, Black Sun, Ministry of Revenue for the Province of Ontario and the Department of Immigration and Employment for Canada. Yes, there are two government agencies on this list.

In every case, the customer service staff were helpful, attentive and knowledgeable. Good heavens, the guy from the Ministry of Revenue even had me laughing uproariously while he worked through my questions.

I make a point of including the names of the companies here because good customer service is hard to find. People are mainly self-involved, too busy and just don't care. And when that spreads into the delivery of customer service, it says a lot about your brand.

The front-line people are the real owners of delivering the brand experience. So whether it is salespeople, customer service folks or the owner of the company, everyone needs to buy into the brand definition and deliver that experience. The companies mentioned above have instilled enough pride in the brand and enjoyment of the job that the customer service people are trusted to be the face of the company. (Here's the spot to say - you get what you pay for...make sure your front-line people are paid well enough to enjoy their job and want to stay.)

And now for the ball-droppers. I won't name them here because this message is no doubt broadly true. And you know who you are - the small business owner that is just too busy running the business to pay particular attention to being on the front-line.

These are the people who don't return emails and phone calls. They are the ones who are negatively vocal about their competition, rather than identifying the positives in their own business. And they are the ones who don't care about how they are perceived by their suppliers.

Yes, suppliers. Your customers are not the only people that can destroy your brand for you. Your suppliers interact with you on a regular basis and have the biggest opportunity to develop an opinion about your business. Just because they are a supplier doesn't mean they don't have the power to recommend you to others, or tell others not to do business with you.

Make it a point to return emails in 24 hours. Even if it is just a note that says you are busy and will get back to them in a day or so. (Or make sure to have an auto-reply saying when you will be back to your emails)

Acknowledgment is one of the driving forces of humanity. Acknowledge your customers and your suppliers. Always remember that everything you do reflects on your brand and on your business. If you don't return emails, people will soon question your reliability and organization skills. And when I say "your", I don't just mean you, I mean your business as well.

Get into the habit of talking about the uniqueness of your business rather than the negative things about your competition. By talking about your competition, you are giving them mind-time they wouldn't otherwise get.

Many small business owners are also the customer service department. You need to think like a customer service representative. It is easy these days to bring to mind a negative customer service experience, not so easy to remember a good one. That alone will make you stand out from the crowd and will help you grow your business.