I have a well known IM/internet calling service installed on my laptop which I installed when I was at my last job and foolishly used my work email in my account profile .  Yes you guessed it I forgot the password.  The interesting vicious circle I got caught in was to get a new passsword I need to get an email (which I can’t becasue it was my old work one) and to change the email I need a password.

Ok I have no problem contacting customer service and asking for help. Yes, I did a stupid thing, mea culpa but please help me.  Now here’s where it got interesting.   You can’t contact this firm’s customer service.  No phone, number or email only a virtual loop of FAQs.  OK I’m into self-help but my problem isn’t on the list so can’t self-help either.

The one thing everyone is willing to share is his or her opinion.  Bad news if it’s your in-laws but great news if it’s your customers.  In my experience working with small business professionals rather than being the first line of defense it’s often left out of the playbook all together. No matter what it is your selling asking for customer feedback, insights, and unfulfilled needs should be part of your organizational policies.

Making it standard practice among all employees (so who in your organization doesn’t touch a customer or potential customer?) and institutionalizing it as a regular procedure is a key to business success. Create a list of questions that can be asked during customer interactions. Here’s a few to get you started:

Recently while running some errands my husband stopped at 2 small specialty stores to make some purchases. He’s been to both stores before and with a 17 year career in customer service, knows what good service looks and feels like.  I point this out because as an expert he’s not just groaning when he gets bad service he leaps in to make positive suggestions for improvement.  The reaction by these two business owners couldn’t be more different then their businesses.

At the first store customers are made to feel welcome, questions are answered with patience and suggestions acknowledged and often implemented.  At the second store everyone knows when the owner is behind the desk because you can see customers backing out of the store or driving right by when they see his car in the parking lot. This entrepreneur takes his bad attitude to work rather than checking it at the door. His business survives because he has staff that get it right.