Many years ago, in a time when a Telex machine sat in the corner of the office and we all sat around it waiting for the magic to occur (once a day if you were lucky- the company may have not been busy but boy was it Hi-Tec) a colleague, good friend and much respected Salesman once said to me …

Mark, do you know who the most important person is , to me, in any of our customers ?

No, Reginald (not his real name , I would never have worked for anyone called Reginald, least of all Reggie , as he would have frightened me- for those who don’t know any 60’s London gangsters he was a nasty one. I was too young to know him but my Dad did). Do tell.

Well, it was not who you think it is . It is not the Boss, it is not their assistant , it is not the buyer …

Reginald get to the point , the telex machine might kick off.

It’s the geezer (and then it was invariably male) who takes our delivery in at the back(metaphorical back, it could be front sometimes) door .

None of this is true. Or at least the only true part is what Reginald said (and he was a very highly respected salesman) and the Telex bit . He qualified it by saying that with every customer if you did not treat everyone within the customer’s organisation with equal respect then you should not expect it in return . He used the Guy at the back door as an example of being the very first person who actually comes into contact with the product you have sold to the customer. If he can relate your inanimate cartons to a good experience then there is a very good chance they would be treated well, counted properly , stored nicely, recorded accurately and perhaps a little more patient if the delivery driver has turned up late .

It’s all about customer service . It does not stop and start with being nice to the Buyer/Boss. It’s a lot more holistic. Yet still very simple. If you are able to have relationship with all the relevant colleagues (especially with the one at Goods In) it will ultimately smooth the path from your product going in the metaphoric back door and out through the front door.

Of course the same is true in reverse . You can be the best and most liked salesperson in your market place. You maybe selling a terrific product at an amazing price but if the courier your company uses always arrives late at the customer , is very grumpy or awkward and your accounts department starts chasing payment before you have had the delivery. Or your Sales office never picks the phone up or answers emails. You will soon loose that customer. I don’t want to start on The Buyers. To be quite clear, the majority are great even if they do not become customers. That, after all, is their job , to select from whom and what they buy. And No, I don’t expect them to always return your calls. But a few are just rude or very forgetful. Missing apointments happens for a variety of reasons but not getting any acknowledgment of that is not on and I suspect that is not conducive to that company getting the best service from that supplier. Ignoring information that has been requested . Being down right rude in meetings. That happened to me in a virtual meeting when discussing possible price increase when the immediate response by the said buyer was as follows ….

If you continue in that vein ( the vein was the initial suggestion that we may need a price increase) I shall terminate this meeting now .

How is that helpful ?

We have all had the experience of going into a Retail Store, been looked after by an excellent salesperson and made a purchase. When getting home you have a query and ring Head Office, and find they are very unhelpful , don’t have an answer, or can’t be bothered find out, don’t follow up on your query and try pass it onto another colleague. Not only do you seriously consider never going into that shop, it also tarnishes the Brand of product you have bought .

It does not matter whether in a commercial or consumer environment, there should be seamless good customer service. The principles are very simple in my book. Yet many organisations consistently fail the test from all angles. That includes …..

We are sorry our phone lines are extremely busy right now ….

Lucky old you …

• Treat every individual (within a specific organisation), you react with , with respect
• Clarity and understanding in expectations. By that I mean understand what are the limits of that colleague , within the organisation, is able to achieve within their brief. An example would be that I would not necessarily ask the receptionist how many missing cartons there were on a specific delivery. However, if your relationship with that customer is very good the Receptionist may say I will find out for you . In the same way, as a consumer, I went back to my retail store and asked some detail about my new Smart TV, and the Salesperson said Sorry I don’t anything about that model but I will find someone who can . I would be just as disposed to that store as if that same Salesperson was doing the assisting.

Life is short, relationships come in and out of your life at high speed, and sometimes you get only one chance to make it work. Showing kindness means that when you look back at your career, you’ll be proud not just of your achievements but how you went about them. Wherever you sit within an organisation, it matters. There’s kudos in kindness.

Richard Harpin is founder and chairman of HomeServe and Growth Partner, and owner of Business Leader magazine

None of this is rocket science. Yet most days most of us will receive from one organisation or other (big or small) a transaction of some form or other that is well below par. There can be many reasons for this , some of which can be excused because of personal situations, such as, not well, had an argument before leaving for work, recent bad news ….. but most can’t.

A short post but I don’t hink there is a need to say a lot, as a very famous Meerkat keeps saying …

The Rules are Simples …..

Sorry the Meerkat only says SImples . And for overseas readers see link for Meerkat explanation ( albeit he is Russian) https://www.comparethemarket.com