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B 2 - The Oakville Beaver, W ednesday O cto b e r 23, 2002 | O a k y ille "Where good service is a fact not just a promise!" Dt ear Sun Th i. ia rt customers n u n s white Ten customer service policies to take your retail business to the next level Socially responsible companies know, on a core level, that they exist to do more than make money. What that "more" is depends on each company. Generally speaking, it's about touching lives, making a difference, and being authentic-- all in alignment with a particular mission or vision. To take your business to the next level, here are the top ten service policies to keep in mind: 1. Know Your Purpose Why are you in business? W hat have you come to do? The socially responsible company knows. 2. Know Who Your Customer Is, And Know Him Better Than You Know Yourself You have internal (people within the organization you need to serve so that your external customers are served well) and external customers (the end users of your product or service). All of these people need to be defined, and there needs to be a clear understanding about who is being served, how they are to be served, and why you are serving them. You cannot serve everyone well. That's why it's critical for you to know who you're serving. Organizations that lose sight of this flounder. Every single customer has a need. They come to you to have it served. That's why it's incredibly important for socially responsible companies to know the customer, so that they'll know how to address his/her needs-- today, and in the future. 3. Create An Internal Community With One Voice Every single person in your organization must be empowered to take care of your customers. Every action of every person needs to be measured against customer needs, with the goal to exceed expectations. Socially responsible companies are full of people who take responsibility, and feel free to make things happen in order to better serve customer needs. 4. Create A Community O f Customers Who Are Partners For Success. There are no lone customers. Together, they have a voice. And they'll share it with you, telling you what they need, don't want, love or hate, if you ask them. Socially responsible companies create customer communities and make it easy for them to share what they want to and need to. Smart customers partner with businesses they value. There's a bond created when both sides want to help each other. There can be a free exchange of information, a desire to share ideas, they can look forward together to a common vision, and support each other in accomplishing more. By partnering with your customers, you break down barriers to communication, and the company, becoming perme ated with the customer's voice (a natural result of working with partners), allows you to provide greater, and sustainable value. 5. Choose Service Over Self-interest We all work very hard to have more money and more things. Unfortunately, we have to work harder to afford them, and have much less time to enjoy them. We run roughshod over others on our way to the top. Our families see less and less o f us. Yet it would seem that "looking out for number one," whether that "one" is an individual or company, is the way of the world. But the way to get past that is to commit to some thing bigger. Something outside yourself. To find a cause to believe in and to support. That takes the emphasis off of the "I," and puts it more on the "you," or the "we." And it's there that true service begins to emerge. In business, this could mean a shift from the focus on profit, to the focus on touching the lives o f your customer. The first can't happen, long term, without the second, and socially responsible companies know that it happens more naturally when the second is the guiding principal. 6. Serve Your Own People To have people engaged in serving your cus tomers, you need to take great care o f them, and let them know they matter to the successfulness of the company. Better benefits, comp time, flex time, are all great, but they may be meaningless to your staff. Socially responsible com panies find out what employees need to feel really appreciated and an inte gral part of the team, give them a voice in defining the culture for themselves, implement what's sug gested to the best o f their abilities, and watch what happens when engaged employees interact with internal and external customers, from a place o f hav ing a deeper commitment to a larger community. 7. Serve The World. Harm Nothing. In a world that can seem so insane, socially responsible companies do no harm to the environ ment, to people, to animals. In this way, they play a part in preserving what this generation will hand down to the next. 8. Walk Your Talk Socially responsible companies only say and do things that are true, and they say and do them consis tently. 9. Connect Head And Heart The traditional paradigm has business conducted in a logical, linear fashion. Yet people don't make buying decisions that way. And over time, successful socially responsible companies have learned that they need to connect head and heart-- logic, and emo tion-- to best serve their customers. 10. Make Every Moment Count The Amish know that everything is sacred. That there's no difference, nothing more or less important, than anything else. So they pay as much attention to sewing on a button as they do to teaching a child to read. Socially responsible companies know that every moment counts, and every moment is an opportunity to serve. --B y Stacy Brice M ulti A d Services &}ohn< -------- -- O n ce 3gain> j ^ i e; esu/ts in d ^ * * * * * » « « ,, * * * * * * * * m is F i. u n n c c e s sa jyK p ^ «*kBogthltj V b c c nhs urKnl P3,dt00^ h f 0r bavinS dealt with rh *** knowle dP P ki Th a n k sWin gun ! m*** 1P ^ d l c friT d lr °°dtur ^ * n o l g o ! r Wlmed to '« ro,, L Sinccrdy> S m n0^ ' " ^ 0 ^ in J %. your effons Ask about o u r <y. Fall Special s! 1291 SPEERS ROAD, OAKVILLE 195 ``WHERE GOOD SERVICE IS A FACT NOT JUST A PROMISE" 905-827-4242 //oit « (re x/noitet/c/o ( h r F IT T IN G t e T A m ·« T / ^ » / 7-00 '1' ^ - S - 5 .? ^ +. B»>j -xvjl- ' > ) ^ J Your uru m im expert, petite to figure from A-J f w xsv^ (^ ( , ^ 3 ) < For Memory-Impaired Seniors October 24: (hantelle Day Josien, Bra Fitter from ChantellH f will join us to introduce thejjeau new Fall Collection and fit you in sizj A-G cup. 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