I hate it when I experience lousy customer service. It’s bad enough when I’m talking with a sales person, customer service rep or tech support specialist who is incompetent and unhelpful. Combine that with rudeness and lack of consideration, and it really presses my buttons.
That’s why it’s so refreshing to announce the winners of the first annual Joe’s Stellar Service Awards. These are people I’ve observed recently who have gone way above and beyond my expectations in treating their clients fantastically and exceeding service expectations. These are people who help others smile and breathe a sigh of relief rather than prompt them to hurl a PDA against a wall. They give us hope for our sanity and hope for humanity.
Winner #1 – Investing in our long-term mutual success.
Gerrit Zaayman has continually and repeatedly gone to great lengths to offer excellent personal service to me and colleagues of mine as he trained us and supported us in using his company’s behavior assessment: Shadowmatch. He’s been responsive, helpful and patient in providing expert advice and friendly assistance. He is committed to helping me and other clients be successful, and he knows this will ultimately help him and his business be successful, too.
Winner #2 – Generous networker.
I met Shelli Nelson recently for a virtual coffee, and I was expecting to be the one to offer her introductions to people in my network as she searches for her next job. But instead of focusing our attention on helping her, she quickly asked about me, my work and how she could help me. She listened well, was genuinely interested and connected me with 2-3 people who she thought would be great for me to meet. And she followed up soon after our call with an email introducing her contacts in a genuinely complementary way.
Winner #3 – It’s all about those you serve.
Doug Goodwin and GT Todd are the Directors of Kamp Kanakuk Family Camp that my family has attended. Not only did they design the camp grounds, programs and experiences with families’ enjoyment and priorities in mind. And not only did they recruit and train superb staff to focus on helping guests have a great time. They also genuinely and repeatedly reminded us, the campers, “This is your vacation. Let us know how we can help make it fantastic for you.” And then they delivered on the various random requests we made.
From investing in mutual success to generous networking and having an “it’s all about you” attitude … these “Stellar Service Award Winners” served their customers above and beyond the call of duty.
And they also inspire the rest of us to do the same.
Joe Baker is a Partner with PeopleResults, and serving clients excellently is a passion of his. You can reach him at jbaker@www.people-results.com or on Twitter @JoeBakerJr.
