What NASCAR Does Right
Posted by LaMont in Good Customer Service on July 11, 2010
When people think of customer service they don’t often make the leap to professional sports. When talking about an organization that provided you with good or bad customer service, did you mention your favorite sport or team?
When you go to a sporting event, from football to hockey, you buy your ticket, maybe tailgate in the parking lot and then watch the game. If you can afford it, you buy a ticket that gets you close to the portal which the athletes use to enter and exit the field. If you’re really lucky you get a high five from one of the athletes as they pass through the portal. You almost never get to meet them, have a brief conversation and get some memorabilia or souvenir signed while at the game or venue.
NASCAR on the other hand does the first step in providing excellent customer service extremely well. It’s the same thing your mother taught you to do. When you see your friends, you make sure they know that you are happy to see them and you welcome them into your house, your party, your BBQ or whatever event, enthusiastically.
In this case, a NASCAR driver’s friends are his/her fans and what NASCAR drivers seem to understand so well, is that these friends are their customers. Their friends buy T-Shirts, Baseball Caps, Die-cast models of their cars, and a myriad of other memorabilia and souvenirs.
When you attend a NASCAR race, you can buy a cheap-seat or a high priced seat and you will still have access to the drivers as they sign autographs at their merchandise trailers. Spend a little more and you can get a Pit Pass and meet every driver in the race. The drivers will take the time to talk to you, shake your hand and sign your blank piece of paper or your new ball cap.
What’s more, when NASCAR comes to town, there are public events at local establishments. The drivers attend these meet-and-greets with their fans to sign autographs, take photos and give their fans the opportunity to mingle with them and all of this for free, no ticket required.
In the words of Richard Petty “The King” of NASCAR, “We wouldn’t be here without the fans…”
That, my friends is what excellent customer service is all about.
Why You Need to KISS Your Client!
Posted by LaMont in Customer Focused on July 10, 2010
Customer service doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the best customer service comes from doing the simple things your Mom taught you when you were a child. I’ve always been a proponent of the KISS method of doing things, you know “Keep It Simple Stupid”! If you KISS your clients, you’re going to get greater customer loyalty, a better response to your efforts, whether marketing, sales or Customer Service and you’ll find that it is easy to implement a full service customer service program into your existing business.
Customer Service doesn’t need to be hard, in fact, done right it’s the easiest thing in the world you can do to increase your customer loyalty and ultimately your bottom line.
Isn’t that what business is all about?