What is customer service really?

For the answer to that question I’m going to draw on my 20+ years of experience in the hotel and hospitality industry.

Why do we focus so much of our money, time and energy on customer service? The simple answer is because customer service is, in reality, reputation management. When someone comes to my hotel, I want them to have an amazing experience; and come back again and again, and tell all their friends.

It seems strange then, that so many choose to invest so little in the very people who are responsible for their organisation’s most precious asset; reputation.

Have you ever taken a moment to think about how you decide on where to celebrate a family birthday or other celebration? Perhaps it might be a local restaurant. Maybe the decision-making process might go something like this: You talk with your family discussing which restaurant to go to, and whilst the discussion may start with the quality of food, often the ultimate decision is based on the quality of service. Obviously if the food is rubbish you’re not going to go, but if the service is rubbish, you’re definitely not going to go…even if the food is great.

For me service and reputation are about culture and values and no matter how great your product, it’s what other people say about YOU (not your product) when you’re not there, that truly creates the recipe for success. If you nurture a culture of quality, then quality will be the one thing that finds you.

Richard Branson said “If you look after your staff (or team), they will look after your customers”. You could easily add to that – “…and your customers will look after your business”.

So, let’s swap out some of those nouns; let’s change staff to ‘network’ and customers to ‘referrals’. Now we have a quote that reads “if you look after your network they will look after your referrals and your referrals will look after your business”.

It’s very easy to see the link between reputation and, in hotel speak, customer service and the importance of investing in your staff and team. Perhaps it’s less easy to see why investing in your network is so important. If referrals are important to you, as is having a plan to generate more and better referrals, your only option is to invest in your network in the same way that you would invest in your staff to improve customer service.

Book a call with me here and let’s talk about what difference a culture level-up could make for you and your business.