The other day I called one of my suppliers to ask them to fax me a price list for one of their product lines. I was already irritated to be making this call, as I had expected to receive the list with the product catalog I had asked them to mail to me. (It wasn't.) And, I had called the day before, to ask that the list be faxed to me. Which was not done. (And yes, I checked to make sure there was paper in the fax. )
So now I was making my second (actually 3rd) call on the same topic, and I was completely annoyed, because I'm busy enough, without having to make 3 calls about the same thing.
When I called, I ended up having a conversation with customer service, that went something like this.
Me - "I asked to have the price list for --- faxed to me."
Customer Service - "The prices are all on line."
Me - "I know they are all on line, but I still want a physical price list to look at."
Customer Service - "We are in the process of updating it."
Me - "Well are the prices in the current list still good?"
Customer Service - "Yes. you can get them online."
Me - "Well can you fax or send it to me?"
Customer Service - "Can I email it."
Me - "Sure."

Now, I'm not sure why I was given a hard time about this issue. Maybe, they pay a lot of money for the website and want to you use it. Maybe, the new price list is coming out next week. Maybe, they hate faxing. All I know, is that they could have saved themselves, and me, five minutes of phone time, and an article about customer service, if the sales person had simply said, "I'm sorry we didn't get that to you would email be okay instead?"
Which, finally, brings me to the point of this article.
How easy are you to work with? We often complain about difficult customers, but are YOU a difficult business to work with? When clients ask you a question, do you quickly answer, or say, "I'll get right back to you." Or, do you dance around the topic and finally ask why they want to know? Can you easily justify your prices to a customer who is cost conscious? Such as, "I charge $30.00 a foot for a box pleat valance." Or, do you hem and haw and then make something up?
If someone asks you if you can work with them, do you tell them, "Look me up on the Internet and give me a call." Or, do you give them a card and ask if it's okay to call them to set up an appointment.
Do you take a week to get back to your clients' calls and emails? Do you touch base with them periodically throughout the project? Or, do you collect their money and not call them until 8 weeks later when it's time to schedule the install?
As much as you may want to just sit around and sew, without clients, we can't have a business. Without good customer service we can't have a good business. Don't make it difficult to do business with yourself.

Here are a couple tips to make yourself an easy company to work with.
* Make yourself easy to find on the web and through the phone.
* Be able to easily justify your prices and stick to them.
* Answer your clients' questions quickly and precisely, or tell them you will research it and get back to them. Then do that.
* Keep your clients in the loop throughout the project. Don't ignore your clients until the last minute.
* Address client problems quickly and nicely.
* Be knowledgeable about your business and your products.
* Give your customers what they want, and if you can't help them, try to find a reasonable solution.
* If something isn't right for a project, explain to your clients why, and help find an alternative. Don't just say no, I can't do that.
* Be pleasant and cheerful.
* Always apologize when you make a mistake.