The 100 Club

I have been blessed to be able to own my own business for over 30 years. One of the most important things I’ve learned over that long period of time is the value of great customer service.

 

I’m not talking about “reactive customer service”, which is where you solve a problem after it happens. I’m talking about “pro-active customer service”, the kind where you constantly look for ways to improve your service and actively provide greater benefits to your customers. For example, all of our employees carry small embossed note cards with them. They are instructed to hand write “Thank you” notes to customers and/or ask, “What can we do to improve our service to you?” Some of the best ideas to help us grow our business have come from our customers. But if we didn’t pro-actively seek out those ideas we would never learn and never grow. Therefore I have a habit of noticing good (and bad) customer service everywhere I go.

 

Here’s an example. This past weekend my wife and I drove up north to visit our daughter. We always stay at the same Hotel because they normally provide great customer service and sure enough the valet greeted us by name as we drove in, gave us a huge smile and lots of attention. However, from that point on the service went quickly downhill. Every aspect of their service was below average, from dirty towels in our room, to waiters gone missing, to nobody answering at the front desk. We may never return and I’m pretty sure that’s not what the Hotel owners had in mind.

 

After we got home I kept thinking about the one positive experience we had. There was that young valet who went out of his way to provide great customer service and truly appeared to enjoy it. So I decided to take one of our company note cards and write a thank you letter to that young man (and slip a gift card into it). You can call it an ROK (random act of kindness) but why not reward people who make our lives better. For that matter, it doesn’t take a gift card…just letting people know you appreciate them will usually brighten their day tremendously. Why? Because it just doesn’t happen often enough.

 

So here’s my idea. I’m starting The 100 Club and I would like you to join me. A member of this club is someone who makes a pro-active effort at least twice per week all year long to brighten someone else’s day. It might be a stranger or it might be a friend. It can be a nice email or just a brief text message asking, “How u doing? It could be a phone call to a distant relative or a generous tip to the waiter at your favorite restaurant. But whatever it is, great customer service (and kindness) doesn’t have to happen only at work. Just think about it….doing something nice for someone else twice a week for a year would be over 100 ROK’s! Maybe if we all did that, it would rub off on people and the world would be a better place!

 

When God’s love impacts our lives, it completely changes

us so that selfishness turns to generosity. 

                                                    ~ Max Lucado