Customer Service

“The purpose of a business is to get and keep a customer. Without customers, no amount of engineering wizardry, clever financing, or operations expertise can keep a company going.” ― Theodore Levitt

---

I recently finished the book Amaze Every Customer Every Time by Shep Hyken and I really enjoyed it. It had a lot of great points and below are some of those points with my thoughts.

"Build better relationships with your customers by building better relationships with your employees."

I love this because what Shep talks about in this part of the book is how, to your customer, the whole company is represented by the employee that they deal with. In fact he says that the employee doesn't just represent the company but to that customer that employee is the company. As leaders we have to make sure that our employees or volunteers are treated well and treated like we want them to treat our customers.

"Your company can't be good at everything and it shouldn't try."

Often companies try to be the "best" at everything but because they aren't focused they end up being mediocre across the board. Shep recommends figuring out what your competition isn't good at and you are good at and make that your specialty. I think that is correct. I agree with Shep that you should focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses. I also think it is a bad idea to try and focus on everything.

"Focus on the customer not the money"

The concept that Shep is presenting here is that you should focus on taking care of the customer instead of focusing on the single transaction that is happening because the customer will return if they feel like they are treated well. Treat your customers like people, no, treat them like family and they will come back time and time again. 

---

Leadership Lesson

I really like the quote at the beginning of this post. The goal of your business may be to make money but the purpose of your business is to get and keep customers. If anything about your business is pushing customers away you are hurting yourself and your company. Take time to make sure that your customers are well taken care of.