Is your business a YES business?

Posted by Sharon Ballantyne Davies 

There is nothing that opens your eyes to customer service, or complete lack thereof, than completing 6 to 8 phone interviews every day and part of that is discussions around a candidates interpretation of what the definition of great customer service is.

Customer service is something that most people think, in my experience, that they do well. For others, they don’t even THINK about service and the impact their behaviour has on their customers.

I have had the recent misfortune of having to deal with one NZ business which is outstandingly shocking in their service standards. Working in the recruitment sector, which is a sector notorious for their lack of transparency and over-inflated prices, this company is run by with an aggressive and condescending ‘service standard’. Quite exceptional really as there are plenty of other places offering pre-employment checks! Then the other side of the coin is companies who grow rapidly and believe that because they are the dominating player, they can treat their customers like absolute rubbish, which is what one NZ media is currently doing.

So it got me thinking about service… a simple word that often isn’t thought about, but is one of those things that most businesses believe they do well, but often fall very short.

Does your company have customer service standards that all staff are aware of and live and breathe in their daily work routines?You don’t often hear an owner saying ‘we give a really bad customer experience’ but do you have a policy for handling customer complaints when the wheels do fall off service standards?

In all of the businesses I am part of, we have a rule. It is very simple.  We are a ‘yes’ business.  If a customer asks if we can do something, ‘yes’ is our only answer. The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes us a little longer.

By adopting this philosophy, we have opened doors to many opportunities that may have otherwise been missed. We have aligned ourselves to work WITH our clients, not against them. And, we get complimented on our service continuously. It really is just a matter of living and breathing your philosophy and ensuring all staff do the same.

You should try it within your business – you may be amazed at the results!

Sharon Ballantyne Davies is the Founding Director of Talent Propeller. She is passionate about continuing to develop technology that will change the way businesses find and hire staff and set the benchmark across the country for effective recruitment technology. She also believes that all technology needs to be backed by amazing service so works hard to ensure the Talent Propeller team is built on knowledge, service and passion for what we do.

You can reach Sharon here