It’s something we all talk about regularly and we know in business one of the most important elements is the quality of service we are prepared to provide.
Notice I used the word prepared, as I believe we are all capable of offering service but at what quality and does quality actually relate to cost?
We regularly hear of cost cutting and this usually has a direct relation to time and in turn that leads to cuts in service, whether that’s reducing staff numbers or trimming components of a product or service.
So it’s got me thinking, what is expected with a high quality of service? It’s so incredible easy to say and as a guy I used to work for used to say regularly. “talks cheap” but why do we often feel that the people serving us simply don’t care or don’t take the time to get it right?
In our business we believe a high quality of service is listening to and understanding our customers’ needs, offering suggestions and ideas and giving them the very best possible outcome we can within some limitations. We recognise that there are time limits, sure we can produce a high end video that could potentially take six to eight weeks to produce but if our client only has a budget which equates to one week of our time, then we need to find that balance.
Whatever the time allocated to a project we still need to ensure we do the very best we can within that time and if we go over time just slightly because we ant to do a better job then we simply absorb that. Like all businesses we have to value our time and we need to provide the same quality of service to multiple clients often at the same time, but to me quality of service comes down to one simple thing… attitude and that’s free.
Before getting too caught up watching the clock or constantly working out the costs of a project (and I realise this has to be done) surely it comes down to wanting to do the best we can for our clients. I have no doubt that also means we are doing the best for ourselves, in the sense that if our clients like what we do, then they may keep coming back and hopefully tell others and we all know about the value of word of mouth.
I don’t think for one minute we can’t improve in areas of our business, we are constantly finding new ways to do things or more efficient procedures, even new equipment to help us but we make changes to ideally offer better service, better outcomes not just to find ways to trim costs and save money.
As our good friend Tom O’Toole has often said, “have an attitude of gratitude” be thankful that people would like to do business with you, they are essentially offering you their money, so be grateful and give them the best value you can offering and providing the best service you can or should I say having the best attitude you can.
We often feel that well beyond being financially rewarded to do a job, one of the most beneficial rewards is getting feedback or those little comments from our clients that say “We’re really happy with what you have done for us”.
