No, I don’t think people want something for free. They know we all need to make something to survive in business. They just want to be treated as if they’re the ones responsible for that survival. And that’s exactly how we treat our customers – whether it’s their first visit or just part of their daily routine.

Great post. I think you’d be interested in the link I posted above. It will take you to Mars, Incorporated’s 5 Principles web page. (I worked at Mars for over 4 years).

Mars, a family-owned company with global iconic brands (Snickers, M&M’s etc), stays as close and true to their 5 principles as possible. Instead of expediency they have Efficiency. Quality comes above all. They are listed in order of relevance: Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom.

If a company has basic principles, you won’t have to worry about straying from them. They will be posted everywhere and reinforced daily. I’m not saying that Mars is perfect, but whenever we were faced with a challenge, we had a road map set up by the Mars family. This road map was easy to understand and easy to use for every associate.

As IT Director I get to deal with a lot of vendors. Some of them are very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly, and they get a lot of the business I can provide.

Others lose the business, but I always take the time to explain why on my blog. It’s funny how many times, when that happens, representatives from that company in question show up in your comments section offering the help someone should have given at the outset…a lot of pain and angst can be saved by treating people right and doing a good job.

David

I loved this post. Good timing too, as I’ve been doing some business-type reflecting and have been trying to figure some things out in my head. (It’s scary in my head, btw.)

You just gave me a really good idea… one of those kind of ideas I can actually put to practical use right this minute. (That rarely happens!)

So… thank you.

The tech services team I used to lead was known throughout the company for both expertise and prompt delivery of that expertise in support of the 600 people in our support domain.

I sent out random, very short surveys to ask our customers how we were doing.

One lady responded to say she was generally happy, but one time it took an hour to get help.

You tell me how many corporate employees find a response time of an hour from report of an issue to someone holding your hand at your desk through the resolution of it, yet it illustrates the hazard of expectations migrating so far above the norm that plain old fast, competent service (it sometimes boils down to that if you have four people and 600 customers: still delivering, but not as quickly as usual because of a spike in volume) is deemed something to note as a shortcoming in a quality-of-service survey.

I kept that survey comment. In a way, it was the best compliment the team ever received: we had our customers fully expecting service and results in a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately, many of the workers of today don’t understand the basics of quality and respectful service. Just as the schools have had to provide more than a basic education, companies will have to train workers who weren’t properly trained at home…or we as customers will just continue to settle for less. I’d rather not.

As for expectations, I completely disagree. Want to exceed your customers’ expectations? Give them your product/service for free. That will absolutely blow them away.

It will blow your business, too.

Meet their highest expectations? Yes. Exceed? Be very, very careful; trying to do to much often leads to a drop in quality.

Great reminder for everyone is business and in life as well. It comes down to leadership for these businesses and continuing to stay true to the values of your business and not compromise. It comes from leadership walking the walk and setting the tone. If you are clear on creating a fully defined client experience then it’s much easier to stay the course and provide top notch service and value.

Thanks for the post,