“Our business is about people. It’s about relationships and
trust. It’s about simple acts of kindness.”— Blake Nordstrom
Hi Everyone,
Customer Service means a lot of things to a lot of people. We all know good and bad customer service when we experience it. As a leader at Nordstrom, I spent a lot of time training employees on what it means to give great customer service. I spent a considerable amount of time focusing on how to greet, engage customers and meet their needs. I often spoke about and described what we termed “benign neglect”, a situation where an employee would make a minimum effort to greet and engage a customer, but they were only creating an appearance of interest in the customer. We’ve all experienced this when someone says hi to you, but really isn’t interested in engaging with you. A pattern of this was a quick way to end your career at Nordstrom, we were all hired to provide great customer service.
Customer Service at Tahzoo has the same basic parameters but what is
fundamentally different is that both the quality and clarity of our communication is paramount. We deal with complex technology, creative and organizational challenges. Curiously enough, the concept of “benign neglect” is relevant at Tahzoo.
I see it when members of our team send emails that do not clearly articulate a
problem or the resolution and set client expectations. I see it when we send a note to a client and when they don’t respond in a timely fashion, we sit back and wait for a response rather than drive this issue to resolution. I see it when the complexity of an issue requires Tahzoo team members and our clients to execute together and we don’t follow up to make sure that everyone is engaged and following the plan. I see it when an email or a phone call should happen today and yet someone waits until tomorrow. I could give more examples, but I’m expecting you to get the point.
You need to be diligent in your communications with our clients, is everyone that needs to be in the loop communicated with? Are you clear about the issue at hand, the requirements, the resolutions and have you properly set expectations? Are you being vigilant to notice when there is a breakdown in communication or expectations, especially when it isn’t your fault?
I posit this to all of you because if one of us fails in our communication all of us fail. If we have unhappy clients, then we don’t have a business. If you care about your clients and you care about your employees, you’ll have a company worth caring about.
Let’s go be great!
Bra