Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1499197
20 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2023 or frustrated with a customer, or if you just don't get along with a customer, you never let it show. You never let anyone in your organi- zation hear you criticize a customer. e fact is that anything that comes out of your mouth is multiplied tenfold when it hits the troops. If you are a company president and you publicly knock a customer, you are literally yelling to your people that they now have permission to knock that customer as well. You will have set that example and once that happens, there is almost no turning back. Have you ever said some- thing like this? " My s a l e s p e o p l e a re too close to their custom- ers. The y need to be reminded of who they work for." Or this: "Look, I don't care w h a t t h e c u s t o m e r wants. is is the way we do it here; this is our policy." Or this: "So what if we're late? Everybody is late once in a while. We're a board shop, and board shops screw up once in a while, so they are just going to have to understand that." I hope you have never said any of these things or anything that even sounds like this. But if you have, then you'd better rethink your role in the organization because you are send- ing a terrible message to everyone who works in your company, particularly those who are working on the front lines: your customer ser- vice and salespeople. e point here is that you can come up with all kinds of great ways to deliver solid customer service and you can teach them to your cus- tomer service people until you're blue in the face, but if the rest of the organization doesn't buy into it, you are wasting your time. Delivering Amazing Customer Service I'm on a journey to discover the best cus- tomer service ideas I can find. I have read sev- eral books and talked to numerous people on my search to find the best examples of not just good, but great customer service. Great customer service is the key to success- ful sales growth. Customer acquisition is so expensive and time-consuming that we need to do all we can to retain those dear customers once we have gone through the blood, sweat, and tears of attaining them. e better your cus- tomer service and customer retention, the more suc- cessful your company will be. e fascinating thing about great customer ser- vice—or poor customer service, for that matter— is that it crosses all mar- kets, products, and tech- nologies. If you are building PCBs, your customer service is not only being measured against your fabricator competitors, but you are being measured against Disney, Nordstrom, and The Ritz-Carlton; there is some pretty stiff competition out there. Customer service is universal and should be treated as such. One fact that I can never get out of my head is that when a customer is treated right, they will tell at least 50 people about it. But when a customer is treated poorly, they will tell 250 people about it. Wow! ose are some odds: 5 to 1 in favor of poor customer service. at alone should make us all realize how critical great customer service is to your company's success. I have been reading a book by Shep Hyken called Amaze Every Customer Every Time: 52 You never let anyone in your organization hear you criticize a customer. The fact is that anything that comes out of your mouth is multiplied tenfold when it hits the troops.