Are You Getting The Basics Right?

Part of the holiday season is about giving and receiving gifts. Most of us like doing both – giving and receiving, whether we admit it or not. When we give gifts, we certainly want to be sure that the recipient knows it came from us.

During this past holiday seaso
I found one particular company that had a wide variety of items that I liked and were appropriate for many of the people on my list. Placing the orders was easy enough and having the ability to send a note and have the items gift wrapped was great too. Always happy when things are convenient (and most times willing to pay more for it if need be).

No matter the occasion, when we give gifts, we all want the person we give the gift to know we sent it. Well, that’s where the breakdown occurred in this instance. Not one of the gifts I sent had the gift tag included with it, not one of them.

One recipient actually called the company to see who sent it, one posted a picture on social media asking who sent the item and, thank goodness, the other two were sent to family members who knew to expect the boxes and knew who they were from based on that.

So many times, it’s the little things in business and in life that make a difference. So many times it’s the little things that get left out, go unnoticed and end up costing us business – both in the short and in the long run.

Having systems in place in your business make the little things easier (and by nature, the big things too). A simple checklist is sometimes enough to make things run smoother, have less mistakes and avoid embarrassing situations in your business…or worse, losing clients who really want to invest in your products, services and in you.

Are there simple mistakes being made in your business?

Are there systems that could be set up to help you avoid making those mistakes, and more importantly provide your clients with consistent satisfactory results?

If you're not sure, put yourself in the position of your client. If you were your client, what would you expect from this company? What perks or bonuses would you want that would make doing business with you a more than exceptional experience? What would make you save the company's information and do business there again?

Sometimes, just remembering what it’s like to be a customer can help you put things in place that make doing business with you and your company even more pleasurable.

As a final note on the gift situation, in this story, an email was sent about the situation to the customer service department and no response was ever received from them. A phone call to the company yielded an apology and not much else. I decided not to spend my energy asking to talk to a supervisor or anything. I am simply moving on and will find another company to order gifts from in the future.