There’s No Turning Back

When we treat people well, there’s no turning back. 

When we grow a business by paying attention to our customers, being accessible, and quickly resolving their issues we’ve established an unwritten contract with them.

We’ve set the bar. 

So we’d better make sure that we set it to a level where we can continue to clear it – all the time.

I’ve seen too many instances when a person or a company stopped treating their customers as well as they had in the past. 

I’ve heard too many clients say how someone got “too big for their britches” or “doesn’t think we’re important anymore.”

When we become so successful that we don’t have the ability to offer the level of service to which our clients have become accustomed, we’re in trouble.  

We’re either too big, too busy, or we haven’t planned for our growth very well.

We can’t start out with a bang and flame out because we’re overextended. 

If we build our success on responsiveness and collaboration – we can’t expect to keep it if we start taking shortcuts.

Our customers won’t just be unhappy, they’ll feel betrayed!  

(…and they’ll leave)

Comments

[ann michael]

Craig -

That's a really good point. I think part of the problem is that the impact of implementing new ideas and business models isn't accurately assessed in advance or considered in terms of the whole organization and its capabilities.

I've seen new leadership come in with great innovations, but an inability to transition out of a previous business - or figure out how to do both (if that's feasible). Sometimes they just let the old way die on the vine so that they can get the most possible revenue from it - but in the process they create a whole lot of ill will toward their company and its brands.

That seems like poor management (and planning) to me - what do you think?

Ann

[Craig Maginness]

Consistency is absolutely critical to the sustainability of a business model. The problem I've found, particularly in large organizations is determining who "we" are. Particularly in this day of ever contracting product and strategy life cycles and the changeover of management that seems to go along with it, organizational priorities change. Indeed, entire business models change. Too often it seems that in the charge to implement the "new new" idea, the commitment to the existing ideas that are still working gets lost.

[Drew McLellan]

Ann,

You are SO right! People crave consistency. It reassures them. I try to make this point when I speak to groups. Each time someone asks a question, I give them a copy of my book. After I do that about 3 or 4 times, the next person who asks a question -- I puposefully do not give them one.

As you can imagine it is very rare that anyone says something at that point. Later in the talk, when we're talking about consistency, I ask if they noticed. Naturally, they did. But they didn't speak up. I point out to them the two lessons there.

1) You don't have to do something very long before people expect it. So to your point -- choose wisely.

2) When you mess up and don't stay consistent, most people are "too polite" to call you on it. But it impacts how they view you. And in some cases, as you suggest in your post -- they leave.

I believe consistency is one of the foundation builders in marketing and branding. By the way...this is true internally with your own staff as well. Maybe even more so. Thanks for bringing up such an important topic!

Drew