By Master Motivator Spence Finlayson

For the past thirty years I have been conducting seminars and workshops on Customer Service locally in my native Bahamas and in more than twenty two foreign countries . I was trained initially by Ron Willingham at his Integrity Training Systems Company in Dallas , Phoenix and Atlanta to be a facilitator for his The Customer Seminar in 1987 .

I have discovered that customer service reps should “ treat people the way they would like to be treated when they are the customer .” How you handle your customers and clients can directly affect your company ’ s performance . I would like to share a few outstanding customer service experiences with you : ( 1 ) While on one of my motivational speaking tours of the Caribbean that usually began in St . Croix in the US Virgin Islands and ended in Aruba , I left St . Vincent for my next stop which was Grenada . I was booked into a place called No Problem Apartment Hotel and as soon as the taxi driver delivered me to the reception area , a man came out with a booming bass voice and said enthusiastically ‘ welcome home man , you have no problems ”…. and he left to go back into his office . I asked the front desk clerk “ who is that man ?” she responded ‘ his name is Mr . Godfrey Ventour and he is the owner of the hotel . I responded ‘ wow that is the best welcome that ever received .” Mr . Ventour came back out and said ‘ you are home now my brother , you have no problems . Just as the name of his hotel implied , nothing was a problem . I asked Mr . Ventour if he had a gym on the property and he said no , but there was a gym not far from his house and he would take me there on his way home for lunch and bring me back . So said so done . The morning of my departure to Antigua and Barbuda I called the housekeeping department to borrow an iron and what she said just blew me away . She said “ do you want me to bring the iron to your room for you or do you want me to come to you room and iron your clothes for you .” Nothing was a problem .! I stay in many hotels and a lot of times , they forget many of your requests .

I flew into St . Lucia to conduct my Customer Service Excellence Seminar some years ago and American Eagle landed at Hewanorra International Airport in Vieux Fort and I took a taxi into Castries . The ride was very

nauseating as my driver sped through the small and winding roads in the hills . By the time I got to my hotel in Castries , I was feeling beat and said to myself that I nice cool tropical refreshing drink would be most welcomed . As soon as I uttered those words to myself , a beautiful waitress with a beautiful smile to match brought me a tall glass of St . Lucia ’ s best fruit punch . Wow , a seemingly small thing but it made an indelible impression upon me . Service with a smile , certainly exceeding my expectations .

( 3 ) In my native Nassau , Bahamas , I had to move my corporate office from downtown to another location . I contacted the local phone company Bahamas Telecommunications Company ( BTC ) to have my land line transferred to my new office and they told me that a technician would come to me at 2 pm on Monday . Well , I have had many unsavory experiences with repair personnel that I said ok let me see how this one will work out . To my pleasant surprise and amazement as the clock hit 2 pm , the BTC truck was pulling into my parking lot . I was so blown away that I immediately asked the technician his name and he said Mr . Perpall . I said to him that this was the first time in recent memory that any repairman showed up promptly on time . But it did not end there , I received a call from BTC to see if the work was done satisfactorily . Wow … . Dare To Care !! Dare to Be Great in Customer Service .

I have also had numerous negative customer service experiences . And so for the corporate world , we must remember that exceptional teams deliver exceptional customer service that leaves an indelible impression in the minds of the consumer and it makes the organization or company the kind that customers want to return to time and time again . Today ’ s consumers are more demanding and expect great customer service , they have a much greater awareness of what is going on in the world , what they should expect from a company and that it is very simple for them to quietly take their business somewhere else .

Customer Service Providers must Dare To Care and Dare To Be Great as they exceed expectations and go the extra mile to create an experience that seems exceptional to the customer .

Customer service reps must always remember that they are service ambassadors for their companies while at the same time representing the

brand of the company , which is how the organization is perceived by the general public . When an employee is not concerned about the service that they provide , this of course reflects badly on both them and the company they work for .

During my thirty years as an international motivational speaker , corporate trainer and customer service evangelist , I have conducted training programs for very large organizations , medium size and small companies from the various industries like Telecommunication , Hospitality , Insurance , Government Public Corporations and Utilities , Retail , Restaurants and Food . I constantly remind those employees that the definition of great service is decided by the customer , not you .

When customer expectations are not being met they can very easily turn into complaints . So remember that

‘ customer service is not a department “! Everybody is involved in customer service .. Dare To Care .. Dare To Be Great .. Your customer service reps . when handling complaints should a . Listen Attentively b . Ask questions c . Identify with them d . Ask for forgiveness d . find a reasonable solution e . provide the solution .

Remember that it is the customers who pay your salary …….. Dare to Care … Dare To Be Great in Customer Service .

Spence Finlayson is an international motivational speaker , corporate trainer , bishop of motivation , customer service evangelist , author , talk show host and the Founder and CEO of The Phoenix Institute For Positive Development & Empowerment , a human resources development firm based in Nassau , Bahamas .