It is so very important, and now even more than ever, to assure that your business focuses on how you treat and serve your customers. Working with people is never easy, in any line of business you deal with people and people can be pretty hard to please. It can be daunting if you feel you have to please every single person as this is a near impossible task, but you need to at the very least show that you genuinely care about them. When people feel that you care and you give them their deserved attention, they will most likely return again to you in their time of need.
Some businesses and even tourist spots, due to either their “budget deals” or great geographical positions can tend to over look this important element when dealing with people and adopt the wrong attitude of “lose some gain others”. Some examples of this attitude are what we recently experienced with UK-based budget airlines EasyJet that uses certain policies they have to then take advantage of their customers by having them pay a second ticket when there is the slightest “mistake”. Some budget deals are simply too expensive of a bargain to afford, but their overall attitude is that once you have gone another one will step up. When contacting their customer service we were shocked to see how, rather than attempting to solve our problem they went to great lengths to justify how their personnel responded, and this is without knowing what had happened to us at all. You can read the complete story here.
Another example of what I am talking about is Venice, Italy. I live in Italy and when friends come to visit they of course want to go and see Venice. I cringe with the thought of going there as it has become one of the most exhausting and negative tourist experiences ever. Don’t get me wrong, it is a beautiful city and it has its majestic touch, but it just happens to be full of Venetians! The residents there see people come and go all year round and know that people will just keep on passing through to take in the sights and art, and so they tend to treat people very rudely without a second thought. You get the feeling right away that they could truly care less about you.
Most of us don’t like the feeling of being considered of little importance when making a purchasing decision. It is more like that if you are treated poorly that you will not go back to be mistreated a second time. It is so important that you make it a point as a business to have a customer service that acts as a back up for those who have to deal with people on the front lines day in and day out which is never an easy job. Customer care has to have the best interest of the customer at heart regardless of how difficult they may be to please in order to assure a return.
There are a number of online businesses that are very good at this as I mentioned Amazon.com, Zapos, The Apple Store and will bend over backwards to assist you when you have a question. This treatment makes you want to go back and buy again and again. I recently came across a wonderful and easy to use online travel site that is UK-based called Thomson. If you are traveling out of the UK you can find some of the most amazing travel and holiday deals and the service is well-rounded and upfront and honest. Such sites that give you, not only great savings, but a good and friendly service as well as the assurance that you will not be taken advantage of by hidden fees and dishonest business practices.
If you are planning on beginning any business at all, the most important element you must have is integrity and honesty to make every customer feel as though they are the most important person on earth, because they are. Without customers you will never make it, so treat them with the respect that they need and deserve.
