WOWING YOUR CUSTOMERS WITH COMMUNICATION BY RANDY NEWHARD

Of the dozen or so articles I have written in the past, the majority have been related specifically to landscape issues. Plants Don't Like Paint, Decollate Snails: The Good Guys vs. The Bad Guys, Water Management and How to Do It are to name a few. I actually wrote one a few years ago for Condo Management Magazine about legal requirements for a landscape contractor. I'm sure I'm no different than other authors of articles in thinking  " is anyone actually reading my articles and do they get anything out of them." Well, a few months ago after 3 years of the legal requirement article being published, I received a phone call from a person in Palm Springs. He had some questions about the legal requirements for a landscape maintenance company. Knowing someone read that article and referenced that article gave me inspiration for writing this article.

I'd like to write about communication and wowing your clients. There have been hundreds of books written on this important subject. My intent with this article is to remind you to find a great book on communicating and periodically pick it up and read it. We all are very busy with our professional and personal lives and sometimes we forget to "fill up our tank" regarding reading about this critical issue. I've always wanted to be a speaker, facilitator or organizer of seminars that deal with communication, customer service, motivational topics and even positive attitude issues. So watch out, there goes my landscape career and I'm trading it in for an author / speaker career. Yeah, right. Next month the blue moon is going to rise in the west.... Whoa, wait a minute you say, we just had a blue moon last month and we'll have another one in a few months. (In case you don't know what a blue moon is - it's when there are two full moons in a month.)

Let's start of off with a quote from A. Blanton Godfrey, CEO, Juran Institute " It's not enough anymore to merely satisfy the customer; customers must be "delighted" - surprised by having their needs not just met, but exceeded." That sounds like the Total Quality era of a few years ago. But how true it is. At the minimum, our clients expect their needs to be met all the time. We're no longer a hero to give our clients what they want. We must continually rise above the norm to wow our prospective and existing clients. How do we do that? First we must know what they want. That part is easy, just ask. They will communicate what they want to us if we ask. If we don't ask, they will assume that we already know. Customer needs are constantly changing and we must be constantly asking what they want. No matter what your job is, you are constantly in contact with your customers. From the receptionist to the accountant, the mower operator to the community manager, everyone is right next to our customers.

Our existing and potential customers also have a responsibility to communicate to us as well. Let's say we have an existing account with a property manager. They need a bid for some extra work. They don't communicate to us when they need a bid and we forgot to ask or we assumed (bad word assume, never assume anything!) within the next two weeks would be ok. Actually the property manager needed that bid for the Board meeting that Thursday. Thursday's Board meeting came and the Board asked the manager where the bid was for that extra work. The manager says " I don't know, I asked the landscaper to get me that bid." Now by not properly communicating what was needed when, who looks bad in the eyes of the Board? Communication is a two way street and it's both sides of the street responsibility to openly share what is happening, what is needed and by when.

Our customer's initial perception of our companies (and maybe forever) is formulated by how they are treated at the inaugural contact. You are your company's representative. Don't ever say "well they won't let me do that, or the company's policy is..." You need to take ownership in wowing your clients by communicating with them. Remember it goes way beyond the initial contact, this is a constant and forever attitude you must adopt. It is a documented fact for companies that offer exceptional customer service and constantly communicate with their clients, that they spend less money on marketing, have a more repetitive client base, less complaining and fewer upset clients and their employee morale was higher. Geez, isn't that what we all want???

Providing exceptional customer service is in the details. "It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that makes the master's fame," says Orison Swett Marden, Founder of Success magazine. Earlier I mentioned those customers' opinions of your firm maybe forever. Actually I should have said that any contact with any employee gives our customers an opportunity to form or revise their impressions of our firms. The initial impression may be hard to correct if it was an unpleasant one. However, if we stay next to that client and make the minute details as important as the major issues, that client will know that you are sincere in your actions.

Communicating with your clients is not a quick fix or a trendy issue. It should be in everyone's strategic planning. Communicating is a philosophy and a way of life. It is an integral part of relationship building. Relationships are not created over night. It is over time, listening and learning what other people's concerns and issues are, that are the foundation of long term relationships.

Give us some more ideas Randy, you are all saying as you read this. Well, I've been periodically "filling my tank" with a great book called Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service - Revised Edition by Kristin Anderson & Ron Zemke. I have enjoyed it so much that a bought a copy for at home and recently bought one for at work! Reading this type of information gets me excited. I want to run out and do it all. I just wish that all I had to do all day were call our clients and say thank you, thank you and thank you. Chapter 22 in the book is Never Underestimate the Value of a Sincere Thank You. They say there are 9 times when you should thank your customers:

1. 1. When they do business with you... every time.
2. When they compliment you (or your company).
3. When they offer comments or suggestions.
4. When they try a new product or service.
5. When they recommend you to a friend.
6. When they are patient ... and not so patient.
7. When they help you serve them better.
8. When they complain to you. Thank them for complaining? Absolutely! Customers who tell you they are unhappy are giving you a second chance.
9. When they make you smile.

Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue but also the mother of all the rest. - Cicero.

Hopefully I've inspired you to once again to read a little about communicating with your customers. It is so critical in all of our businesses. Sometimes we work so hard on generating new business that we forget to take care of our existing clients. Our existing clients are such a wealth of referrals and recommendations that we can't afford to take them for granted. Pick up the phone NOW and thank some of your clients!!!

I'll leave you with this quote from Tom Peters, Management Guru. "Commit yourself to performing one ten-minute act of exceptional customer service per day and to inducing your colleagues to do the same. In a 100-employee company, that would mean 24,000 new courteous acts per year. Such is the stuff of revolutions."

Randy Newhard is President of New Way Professional Landscape Services in San Diego. Randy also serves as a Director of the Community Association Institute - San Diego Chapter and he is Co-Chairman of CAI's Golf & Tennis Charity Classic.