Customer Service

We have had multiple conversations about customer service. The one thing we all know is that BAD customer service is more talked about than GOOD customer service. Not only do we all want to be treated well, we want our customers/clients to be treated well. It's good for business.

The MSN Hall of Fame and Hall of Shame ratings annually report on the good and bad of customer service. In general the good ones, pay attention to their employees first. Make your employees happy and they will make customers happy is the one of the philosophies of Marriott Company. Southwest Airlines states that they "hire for attitude and train for skill." Skill is easier to teach than attitude! Southwest also made customers happy by not adding all of the extra fees so many other airlines did over the last few years. Costco pays their employees better than their competitors(40% better)which makes their employees happier, employees stay with the company longer (reducing training expense for the company) and the employees gain more expertise and provide better customer service.

The Hall of Shame companies however have a plethora of missed opportunities to make customers happy. Surprise fees, unexplained fee increases, poor customer response time, being passed around from one unhelpful employee to the next and getting mixed messages along the way, misplaced paperwork and short tempered, unpleasant customer service reps are among the major complaints.

As enterpreneurs, our customers are essential to our survival and while that doesn't mean we should slash prices or "give away" our product or service, it does mean we have to be known for our customer service. Next time - 8 rules for good customer service.

Buy Local in Oswego

The ONE group in collaboration with the Oswego Fulton Chamber of Commerce would like to promote and support the 3/50 program and any buy local efforts. Since the Chamber's Small Business Breakfast highlighted the 3/50 project by bringing its creator, Cinda Baxter, to Oswego to speak there has been much discussion about how to keep the momentum going and what programs/marketing would work best. One of the items mentioned was a buy local card. This could be an informal business card style that you show the merchant when you buy a product, a key tag similar to what you get with a Price Chopper Advantage card, or you can ascribe to programs for gift cards that are used among independent local retailers. There are multiple options and we should consider the option most feasible for our market. I am including a link to an article about gift card options for anyone interested in learning more.

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=135473371&gid=1855102&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eakersarchitecturalrendering%2Ecom%2Fblog%2F2010%2F6%2F9%2Fcommunity-gift-card-overview%2Ehtml&urlhash=jB80&trk=news_discuss

This is a linkedin discussion on Buy Local/Independent Groups and Advocates page.

Don't forget to pick the three businesses you want to always have in Oswego and support them by spending $50 among the three businesses each month!

Thank you!