RULE 101

Go the extra mile for your customers

This is the easiest Rule of all. Going the extra mile should be the first thing on your mind when you wake in the morning and the last thing at night. Everything you do should be to take service that bit further.

Trouble is, customers are such a pain in the backside. They want stuff, they demand, they are difficult, they complain, they call at unnatural hours, they expect service above and beyond, they think the whole damn business should be run for them, they moan when we move our call centre to India, they want money off, free gifts, two for one, buy one get one free, money back if they are dissatisfied, replacement products, guarantees, safety checks, harmless products. God, who do they think they are? Strike a chord here? Ring any bells? I’ve worked in industries where the customer wasn’t so much king as an inconvenience.

Let’s clear up one thing here and now. Without the customer there is no point. No point coming in. No point making anything. No point creating anything. No point doing anything. Without the customer we are all whistling in the dark.

OK, point made. Now we realize the importance of customers, we have to think of ways of getting them, keeping them, satisfying them, welcoming them, going the extra mile for them. We don’t have to be toadies but we do have to be creative in the ways we woo them. It’s a lot cheaper to service an existing customer than to recruit a new one. Keep the ones you’ve got by being nice to them. Quick exercise: think of three ways of going the extra mile for your customer right now.