Good Karma Edition: Taking Care of Our Customers

Have you ever wondered if you are insanely naiive? That maybe your business gives too much stuff out for free? Perhaps you are too helpful?

I mean, I like to help people. I love to help people. Bob and I have this unsigned pact. If someone asks us for advice, we will give it. 

There have been times when I have thought, "I might have been able to sell this person something."

But it didn't feel right. It wasn't what they needed. There was a better solution for them, less costly, more effective.

Okay. Here it comes. My good karma story.

We have an office in Renton, Washington, just south of Seattle. Two years ago, Bob got chatting with a woman who had an office in the same building. At the time, she was helping businesses and organizations showcase their products and services at trade shows.

She wanted to find out more about creating a promotional piece to sell her services on the trade show circuit.

Bob met her for coffee two separate times and answered as many of her questions as he could. She did not have a big marketing budget so he offered suggestions and advice for some cheaper self-promotion strategies.

None of his recommendations involved hiring a marketing, graphic design and copywriting firm.(Keep in mind, that's what we are.)

She left smiling. I mean, she really left. She moved out of the building and he didn't see her again—until two years later.

That's right. Two years later.

On our website contact form, one week ago, was a request.

"Hmm, that name looks familiar." Bob squinted at the screen.

It was her. The woman. She remembered that nice guy who gave her all that great advice, no strings attached. And she remembered the name, Cat's Eye Marketing.

What goes around…

You want to know what this woman wanted, don't you?

Well, she is now the marketing director for a large Seattle area company and, hey, she just needs graphic design and copywriting for a website. Oh, yes. And support to develop a strategy for reaching a brand new audience, and the marketing materials that go with that.

Okay, this doesn't always happen. But it happens enough.

Another time, a, shall I say, "picky," client drove us nuts with his endless requests for minor design changes on a presentation folder, until Bob wanted to reach for a gun.

"Just shoot me in the head," he said.

Yet this same client called a year and a half later, from New Jersey (which as you know is quite a few miles away from Seattle). He had relocated his business, but he remembered this great designer who listened to him and gave him exactly what he wanted.

Giving outstanding customer service—listening, responding, giving till it hurts—just seems to be so much work. But the rewards can be awesome. And they say, in this recession, it's what sets us apart from our competitors.

How about you? Has providing excellent customer service paid off for you? Is it worth it in the long run? Do your customers remember? If a client is difficult but comes back for more, do you even want to work with them?

Comments

[Hanna @ Watch Live Hockey]

I get that good karma has something to do with people being good to one another with no ulterior motives. Unfortunately, I've witnessed too little of that in my lifetime. Have I become jaded?

[Judy Dunn]

No, Hanna, I don't think so. I think the more we treat people kindly and fairly, the more they go out into the world and treat other people that way, too.

We can be the change we want to see!

[Rene' Fabre]

Yes, yes, yes, and yes... I have several comparable stories. I am such a believer because it has happened over and over. Good Karma in, begets good Karma back!

thx...
Rene'

[Judy Dunn]

So true, René. I have seen very few people in my life take advantage of someone else's goodness.

And it seems sometimes that the client who it was difficult to get things right for (and we're not always sure we made happy) is the one who thinks we did such a good job—and refers us to others!

Glad to hear it's happened to you, too.