A Word to the Industry About Customer Service.

At last week’s MALTA meeting, Charlie King of King Green lawn care in Atlanta, who recently wrote the book “The Professional Entrepreneur,” talked about customer service and how to catch and keep customers.  Charlie focused on six main core values that, as a business man, he follows and expects his employees to follow.

1.     Caring
2.     Honesty
3.     Respect
4.     Responsibility
5.     Faith
6.     Character

I think people forget about the golden rule “Do unto others as you want others to do unto you.” I believe that a lot of companies that have survived this economic downturn are the ones that stayed true to their core values. Pay just a little bit of personal attention, and do what you say you are going to do! I work hard to follow that philosophy in both my professional and personal life. Partnerships are important to me, and I have always held on to my core values of honesty, trust, respect and communication.

To all of you in the home improvement industry, how do you make your company stand out? What are customers saying about you? Are you doing what you say you are going to do? Are you being responsive to your clients? That extra attention to detail will put you above anyone else. It’s always easy to get customers to complain, but we know they are happy with our services when they use us again and send referrals. Think about companies that you frequent that have good customer service—are you providing a similar experience?