I’m sitting in the waiting room in my local Toyota dealership. My car is due for its 5000 mile service, and as I’m sitting in the strangely comfy orange chairs, I’m thinking a bit about the power of service.
In order to build any type of relationship, we need to make sure that our service is always top-notch. There can never be any other option.
So, as I arrived at the dealership, the service representative did a nice job of running through the process and steps that would be taken (it’s a pretty simple service with basically just a tire rotation). He went over what I could expect them to do, and what they would be chatting with me about afterwards.
I asked a few questions to double-check that I understood the process, and he answered. It was clear that the customer was at the front of his thinking.
Needless to say, his service, time, and manner made me want to bring my car back to this dealership for subsequent service work.
In all of our work, we need to be thinking along those lines. While it may be harder than finding a new dealership, those we serve can easily pick up and go to another district, if we don’t have service as the priority in all that we do. How do we keep ourselves service-minded? Here are three ideas:
· Listen. When constituents come with praise or concerns give them your time. Listen intently. Keep your mind focused (there is always time for it to wander later on).
· Do what you say you will. When you make a promise, keep it. Just like I expected the correct work to be done on my car, our constituents expect us to do the correct work for them.
· Keep them coming back. Service isn’t just about listening or doing what is promised. It is also about showing people what they can get from you that they can’t get anywhere else. Share your successes, your failures, your partnerships, and your ability to be truly innovative.
Service leads all of the work that we do. Since relationships are everything, we need to make sure we lead and learn with them always in mind.