Customer Service is Everything

My Wife and I decided to treat ourselves to a dinner out for our anniversary last week. We went to a great Steak place here in town. I made a reservation ahead of time (online) and mentioned it was for our anniversary in the notes section. From the moment we walked in, they called us by first names and congratulated us on our 21st anniversary. We were escorted to a table and asked if we preferred white or black napkins for our laps. Our hostess was courteous and prompt in taking our order once she realized we already knew what we wanted. The waitstaff frequently came by and made sure our drinks were filled without interrupting our conversation. When we were out of bread, they brought more. Our Steak was cooked as we requested. The Manager came by to make sure all was to our liking and congratulated us, by name, on our anniversary. When we mentioned we had time commitment, our desert was packed up and delivered to our table. The next day we received a thank you card from the restaurant.

Contrast that to the amount of times I have felt like I was actually bothering the person behind the fast-food counter when I dared to interrupt their obviously deep conversation with a co-worker about last night's monster-truck rally, only to have my order only slightly resemble what I requested. To top it off, I had to go back and ask for Ketchup, since the dispenser was empty.

Customer Service makes the difference and I have repeatedly stopped supporting establishments that made me feel like a burden.

Over the past year, I watched as my clients had to endure longer than accustomed delays in my ability to fulfill their requests, poor follow-up on post-sales issues and a general degradation in the personal attention I was able to give my clients.

I am not a wine 'em and dine'em expert. I do my share of entertaining, but I pride myself on EXECUTION and attention to detail, taking away the difficulties of dealing with large organizations. I make it a point to turn customer requests within 48 hours and to always, always thank them for their business.

I made attempts to help solve the internal issues that caused my clients pain, involving other departments and management, making suggestions and even changing the way I do business. In the end, I was told that "this is the way we have always run the business and we see no reason to change it."

When the organization you work for becomes a liability instead of an asset and begins to damage your hard-earned reputation, and you've made every effort to help resolve the internal quagmire that sometimes exists, it's time to declare your independence and state your grievances and finally sever ties.

I work too hard on my reputation and will not let inefficiency and apathy cause me or my clients prolonged grief.