Welcome to my blog! I am
so excited that you have come to visit my blog and I hope you find it
informative and enjoy reading the posts as much as I enjoy writing them!
In a nutshell this blog
is about my four passions:
Customer service
Make-up
Skincare
Stationery
An odd combination I
know!
I grew up around
business. My parents owned a couple of shops and so from an early age I learnt
the benefits of great customer service. I watched as my parents greeted each
and every customer with a smile, how they had most of their regular buys ready
on the counter for purchase, how they remembered what magazine or newspaper
each customer read, or what cigarettes they smoked or alcohol they drank, their
child’s favourite sweet…. I witnessed every customer being treated like a V.I.P
star entering our shop. Over and over I would hear customers say when comparing
our shop to the Co-Op next door: “We come in here and pay that penny more
because at least we are greeted with a smile”. My parents befriended their customers,
laughing with them, listening to their problems, but never speaking of their
own. They taught me an incredible amount about business and customer loyalty.
Ironically, that customer
loyalty built our business and killed our business. By the time I had turned 17
both my parents had passed away. Suddenly customers no longer came in to buy
from us. I couldn’t understand why, we did everything our parents had done.
What had changed? Upon asking a few customers we had learnt that not only had
our parents been our loss, it had also been a heart breaking loss for our
customers too. Coming into the shop was a constant reminder that they would
never see either of my parents again, laugh with them or confide in them. Our
customers shared our pain.
The shop was eventually
sold and the three children went on to find their separate career paths. My
brother and I went on to become business owners and my sister has forged a
successful career in sales. We continue to maintain the level of customer
service taught to us by our parents.
A customer is the most
important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent
on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is
not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a
favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to
do so. Ghandi.
To say our level of
customer service is perfect would be a lie; we all have our bad days and we all
make mistakes. However, we learn, we rectify mistakes and we hope that we offer
a better customer service the next time around. And it is this attitude that I
look for from others when I purchase an item or service. I truly hope you find
this blog of value and I hope you’ll let me know when you encounter exceptional
customer service.
Rita
