TJ Gamble

I’ve started a few business in my time, and I’m always trying to absorb knowledge from others that have also.  There is one undeniable truth that all successful business owners preach:  word of mouth is the best advertising available.  Think about it: if someone you trust that has nothing to gain from the recommendation goes out of their way to tell you that a product or service is worthwhile then you are likely to give that product or service a try.  To get good word of mouth advertising, your business needs great customer service.  Take care of your customers and everything else will take care of itself.

I’ve heard a lot of tweets lately about customer service.  A few good ones are below:

Good service leads to multiple sales. If you take care of your customers, they’ll open doors you could never open by yourself.  – @ShanePike

“One customer, well taken care of, could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising.” ~Jim Rohn – @ZigZiglarQuotes

These quotes are as true as they come.  However, depending on what you do, that $10,000 worth of advertising estimate may be quite a bit low.

I’ve had a few good customer service experiences in the last week.  Both instances really opened me up to the particular business I was dealing with.  Coincidentally, they were both local restaurants.  Last week, I went to Five Guys Burgers and orders my cheeseburger.  Well, it came out with onions instead of mushrooms.  Did I order onions accidentally?  Who knows, but I wanted mushrooms.  I took the burger up to the front and an employee saw me coming.  She came out from behind the counter and met me half way.  I was ready to give the whole story and go into the typical hoopla it takes at most restaurants.  However, she stopped me, went ahead and had them start me another burger, wrapped mine back up and handed it to me and told me to take it home to someone who might want it.  I was impressed!  Not only did she take prompt care of my “issue”, but she gave me the old burger as well because they could do nothing but throw it away.

This morning, I stopped by Wendys to try their breakfast as I had never had it.  I ordered a homestyle chicken biscuit and proceeded to the window.  The lady at the window informed me that it would be about 3 minutes for the chicken to fry and asked if I would like a drink while I wait (I had not ordered a drink).  I replied “yes” and got a free coke out of the wait.  Not a big deal, cost the company next to nothing, but small things like that help the customer to understand that you care about their experience and that they are important to you.