Sincerity and Honesty in Customer Service

Me Working OSU Freshman Move-In at 5 AM!!!

As I was thinking about a blog subject, I decided to make a phone call to a customer to see if I could find some inspiration. I do this often, and in this case I was on the phone for a good half hour. I know some people in customer service like to make it short and sweet. I don’t see my job like that. When a customer calls (or anyone for that matter) I let them run the show. I can not have a meaningful conversation with a time limit, and I gain so much from these calls.

Independent coffee house owners have taught me more about how to run a business (and also some random stuff) then I would learn anywhere else. My weekly customers are some of my favorite people to talk to and I even tell my family about them. One evening after talking about Jenny from Morning Glory in Webster City, IA, my husband will said “Nickole is that one of your phone friends at work?” His comment was an AH-HA for me. Not only am I helping our customers, but they leave enough of an impact on me that I think of them as friends. Isn’t this was you want when have a vendor-customer relationship?I love the fact that I can call most of our customers and they know who I am before I even tell them.

These relationships are something I have to work at and put a lot of my own time into, but it pays off. I make mistakes just like a normal person but bacause I have a good relationship with the person I sent the wrong thing product to, it’s not a big deal. They know I will jump over the moon to fix it even if it is not my error. In the beginning I made more mistakes than I do now, but customers were less forgiving because they didn’t know me. The moral of this story–sincerity and honesty in any line of work will take you places you never imagined!