MightyCall‘s Edmund Tee recently captured some of my comments regarding customer experience from a recent advisory session and posted them as a blog. He represented the issues we were discussing and his accuracy reflected on the value of recording meetings so you don’t have to rely just on handwritten notes.

Tee echoed my comments when he said: “If you are in the business of, well, business, there are a few things you need to do well when responding to your customers.”

Four things business owners must do:

• Know when customers, both current and soon-to-be, are trying to contact them
• Make sure their team is able to track customer interactions and assign these requests to the best team member who can help the customer most effectively
• Respond in a timely manner that will satisfy, or preferably delight, the customer
• Do all the above and get back to the customer regardless of how they chose to reach out in the first place.

Additional Thoughts

As I wrote in my earlier post on airline customer service, real relationships form when people work with people. People don’t trust brands or companies, they trust the people who represent those companies and brands. If people’s behaviors don’t align with brand promises or company policy, it won’t matter what those words say, the trust will be lost. For small businesses who often don’t articulate brand promises or share customer service codes of conduct, the only thing that represents them to the world is their people and the actions they take on behalf of the customer. The first hurdle is responding, the second is responding well.