Stories about great customer service abound. One barely mentions the words and Nordstrom’s legendary customer service comes to mind or dominates conversations.
But there is another relatively new company that promised to deliver happiness to customers and employees. And that company is hardly ever mentioned as having great customer service. Instead, Zappos.com has been the exemplar of excellent customer service. In almost any conversation you hear their name mentioned, the words excellent customer service are not far behind.
The distinction between great and excellent in this context may seem somewhat pedantic, but it’s only to make a point. And that is the folks at Zappos have created a more-better culture that not only gained them rabid followers but also a suitor. Maybe you’ve read about Amazon acquiring them today for somewhere around $800 million?
Maybe their valuation isn’t the bazillion dollars that have been paid out for companies in the past, but it’s not bad for a company selling a commodity product. Their differentiator? You guessed it – a culture of great customer service. Oops, I mean excellent customer service.
I love to hear about companies doing good by doing good. I remain convinced that the best way to grow your business is to provide service to your current customers such that they have no choice but to talk about you to others. And everybody loves referral business. I would guess most small businesses wouldn’t even mind being acquired by a company with larger pockets.
Many of the mortgage lenders that I’ve spoken with work very hard for their clients and I’d like to believe the clients understand the value they’re providing. However, buying or refinancing a house is not as simple as buying a pair of shoes. It takes an extra measure of service before and after the transaction to really stand out above the competition.
You’d be surprised how even a small act of following up after the closing will set you apart. So go ahead and export your contacts out of Calyx and import them into our Leads Manager and start following up. You’ll be surprised how much of an impact you’ll have. And as you’ve seen – great customer service is noticed.
