Quote of the week:
- "Happiness is self contentedness." - Aristotle
Recommended book of the week:
- Selling with NLP. - KerryL.Johnson, Positive Paperbacks
Website link of the week:
- www.balancetime.com for great time management tips and information.
This week's customer service "moment of truth".
Water. An opportunity to serve and save
It is always a pleasure to walk into a place of business and see a water-fountain or spring water dispenser in the waiting room, customer lounge or foyer. To me it says many things about the company. Firstly it says that somebody has thought about the welfare of their customers and then, more importantly, has puts those thoughts into action.
There is also another side to providing water for not only customers, but also for staff. Some time back the topic of supplying bottled spring water to staff came up during a conversation with a colleague who was State Sales Manager for an international airline. He stated that when bottled water first became commercially available, staff requested that the company install a dispenser for their use. He was reluctant to do so as the monthly cost of supplying staff with tea and coffee was already, in his opinion, over the top. However he was not averse to staff having a spring water dispenser installed provided they pay for it. The staff went ahead and ordered the water. To my friend's surprise, the cost of tea and coffee for the following month dropped by over 50%. Naturally he was only too happy to meet the cost of water in the future.
Another aspect of supplying water is that consuming all that tea and coffee can't be good for you, or your staff. Health experts agree that we all need to consume between one and two litres of water a day, and the quality of most modern city's water leaves a lot to be desired. If you don't believe me, have a look inside your electric kettle and observe the build-up gunk. If that's not enough evidence for you, contact your local water utility and ask for a chemical analysis. You'll freak out. I personally haven't consumed tap water for years. Nor has my family. So supplying good quality water to both customers and staff is more than just a good customer relations exercise.
As we all know, healthy people are happy people, and happy people are productive people.
Until next week, stay true to yourself and to your customers. And remember great customer service relationships happen by design, and occur in the moment, one customer at a time.
