Businesses succeed by constantly improving customer service

Customers believe what they experience, day by day, not what they are told in clever ads. As a consultant for a global organization with a long history of exponential growth and clever advertisement, I saw firsthand a company doomed by its own complacency. Quite suddenly the competition jacked up their service level by a factor of ten. It wasn’t very long before we were struggling to stay alive.
 
As in many organizations, the staff had seen this coming first, but the executive leadership at corporate headquarters, isolated within their lavish corner offices, was satisfied with the status quo for much too long. They never acknowledged the need to improve. At staff meetings the phrase, “We will stick with what has propelled this company for the past twenty years,” became a kind of tribal chant. This chant would eventually begin to sound like a funeral dirge accompanying the company’s slow, painful loss of its market dominance.
 
Unfortunately none of those executives had read “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. This book is rich in research and penetrating insight about the steps a business must take in order to develop an organization from good to great or even from bad to good. One of Collins’s most profound findings deals with how to face the “brutal facts” of your reality.
 
Many businesses fail to reach their full potential because the owners/executives refuse to see the real gaps in their day-to-day performance – especially when it comes to their customer service. Instead of dealing with facts, unsuccessful leaders prefer to believe their own fiction. Instead of being dedicated to constantly improving service they choose to rest in the comfort of the ordinary, thinking that good intent will carry them through the next challenge.  
 
With this in mind, I almost consider an encounter with a company that provides thoughtful, good-natured service as a romantic affair. No kidding. My heart skips a beat when I find an organization that consistently improves and genuinely cares for its customers.
 
Recently I was hired by Frontier Communications to help with their staff development.  What makes this impressive is they are one of the nation’s largest rural telecommunications company with a stellar reputation for customer service and yet they refuse to bask in the sun of last’s year’s profits and seek to improve even more. 
 
But their not the only ones. Many businesses in Maricopa have the same reputation. From hardware to insurance, from restaurant to convenience store, from florist to chiropractor, we have some great examples to follow. Taking pride in Maricopa business is a seed to our bright future.  May we all continue to improve and join our fellow business partners and make Maricopa the first choice for making a purchase.