Good customer service doesn’t leave clients hungry

I love Chinese food. I could order takeout three times a week and never get bored.

I love Chinese food.
I could order takeout three times a week and never get bored.
I also appreciate good customer service. Therefore, you can imagine how happy I would be if the two actually were combined.
There are two very good Chinese restaurants near my home. They have similar menus, and the prices are nearly identical.
In the past six years, I have ordered a great deal of takeout from both places, and my kids and I also have eaten in each restaurant.
A new owner took over one of the restaurants about six months ago.
After reviewing the new menu, I was upset, because it was a bit pricier, and some of my favorite dishes were missing.
I spoke with the new owner, and he assured me he could make something to order, make a dish more or less spicy, and change the vegetables or any other ingredients to satisfy my preferences or those of any other customer.
When we placed our first order a few days later, I was asked to give my full name, phone number and home address, even though I was picking up the order.
The following week, when we called for home delivery, I didn’t need to give my address, as it already was in their computer system. The food arrived in 30 minutes.
The average delivery time for the restaurants had been about an hour.
The next time we called for a delivery, a $5 coupon accompanied our food order.
I stopped by the restaurant one night after work to pick up some chicken fried rice, and I spotted John, the young owner. I complimented him on his great customer service.
I also asked how he was able to deliver the food so quickly.
John said he simply listened to customers’ likes and dislikes regarding the previous Chinese restaurant, and he found ways to meet their wants and needs.
Since people weren’t happy waiting an hour to get their food, John hired more people to handle deliveries.
He hired several retired men to work as “delivery boys.”
John said they are very serious and reliable, and work hard.
“They also speak English, which my customers like very much,” he said.
As for the coupons, John said that in business, you need to show your appreciation to each and every customer.
“I want to give them an incentive to come back to my place,” he said.
Regardless of the industry you are in, it all comes down to your customers, the service that you provide and the rapport you have with them. Let’s face it: Without the customer, what do you really have?
Just like financial advisers and planners, John, the restaurant owner, faces the dilemma of dealing with a business that is a commodity. The food, which is the product, basically is the same in the two Chinese restaurants in my area.
Therefore, service became the overriding factor, since I decided to order just from John’s restaurant.
The same can be said for the financial advice business.
“All advisers look alike. If all you do is sell on price, you’ll work harder and harder until you drop dead,” Ed Slott said during his keynote speech at the recent 2007 InvestmentNews Retirement Income Summit.
That is the reason that advisers must find ways to set themselves apart from other financial professionals, said Mr. Slott, editor of Ed Slott’s IRA Advisor, a monthly newsletter in Rockville Centre, N.Y.
“[Advisers and planners] need to bring something more to the table,” he said. “You need to bring more value.”
Finding ways to give clients some added value was on the collective minds of many of the advisers with whom I spoke at the summit.
“You need to find ways to be proactive, and not just reactive,” one adviser said.
Still another said that he is at a point where, instead of trying to acquire new business, he is looking at ways to go deeper and offer better service to his current clients.
While mingling at the summit cocktail party, a group of several advisers discussed the fact that many younger clients these days are much more informed about investing.
Therefore, if they aren’t satisfied with the service you provide, these clients, who have little loyalty, will shift their business to another adviser.
“At the end of the day, our clients are putting their trust in us to provide them good advice and great service,” said one adviser, who managed to balance his drink and some finger food at the same time.
I asked: “What’s the secret to success?”
The adviser responded: “Devise a way to differentiate your adviser firm from everyone else. You do that by not just meeting high service expectations but exceeding them.”
“No easy task,” I said as we clinked glasses.