Awesome Care Transcends Industry Borders

Let me start off by admitting that this post is a bit off-topic.  It has nothing to do with DC or with technology.  It is related to one of my passions, which is awesome customer care.  I've mentioned over and over how much I think that corporate honesty and getting good information to the consumer allows those consumers to make better decisions.

I had that kind of experience last night.

I was getting a very ill-advised tattoo covered up last night.  When I was having my little consult with the artist I told him what I wanted and he weighed in.  He let me know that with any cover-up it has to be larger, of course, and probably very solid.  He explained that the cover-up would be more permanent than the original.  He also let me know that he thought my idea would be a little obvious, that it would be readily seen as a cover up.  When I gave him my reasons for it he was totally cool about doing it.  He gave me his opinion, made me very aware of the longer term consequences but still let me make the decision.

That's what was so important to me.  I, the consumer, told him what I wanted.  He drew on his training and expertise and gave me his opinion of the situation and gave me his suggestions.  I took that information, made my decision, and he ran with it.  The entire time he was really friendly and professional and when he did offer suggestions he did it without being the least bit condescending, despite his infinitely superior knowledge of the product, in this case, a tattoo.

In a perfect world, you could apply that last paragraph to any situation and simply replace "tattoo" with "Television" or "wireless plan" or "internet package."  In fact, by being such an off-topic product, it may actually drive the point home that consumer education allows 3 big things to happen:

 1^st - The supplier of the product or service eliminates a lot of their liability if the customer's choice blows up in their face.  "Hey, we told you what would happen."

2^nd - The customer can feel a lot more confident in their purchase.  They know the facts and aren't guessing as far as whether or not the product matches their needs.

3^rd - The customer knows that the supplier/sales rep/company cares about them, by way of highlighting potential pitfalls of the customer's decision.  This is the kind of thing that customers remember and causes them to be repeat customers.  Anyone who took Business 101 (or has an ounce of common sense) knows that you make a lot more money off of repeat customers versus one-time customers.  Also, it cuts down on things like complaint calls and returns, which waste money, further eating into profit margins.

Well, I've rambled long enough, but I think you get my point.  There are certain principles of the sales and customer support processes that transcend industry and make the entire process of buying a product much more pleasant.  Once again, I challenge any representative of any company who reads this to try this with their customers.  I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.