What Do Your Customers Say About You
When I was 15 years old my mother dropped me off at the mall, and said when you leave here you’d better have a job. Of course I thought this was awful at the time, but it truly became a life-changing, character building experience. I found a job at a tchtochke home decor shop, and would work there for the next seven years through high school and college. I firmly believe just about everything you need to know about life can be learned in working through retail (or food service.) It should be mandatory that everyone in American spend at least one year working in either profession. We’d all be much more patient, gracious, and courteous people.
One of the most important lessons I learned working retail was the value of customer service. If you treat a customer well (even the terrible, awful ones), they will want to come back to you. Not just to the business, but to you personally. If you offer helpful and constructive suggestions, it’s usually genuinely appreciated, and they will take your word as the expert. This is how relationships are built. This is also how you learn to be diplomatic with people who are absolutely impossible.
That said, Return Customer is easily one of my favorite blogs around. Anyone who deals with people as part of their job should check out this site. Their tagline is “Learn beneficial marketing and business principles from everyday experiences.” Learn to be better to your customers, they are the backbone of your business.
