Lately, my life has been one hectic moment after another. I feel like one of those cartoon characters with a black cloud following! All kidding aside, as a busy working mom of 2, ANYTHING, I mean truly anything that disrupts my schedule wreaks havoc. And what matters the most during these times as I am having my car towed to a repair shop while out of town or as I am running thru Walgreens to get photos printed at 12midnight for my son’s school project the next day, is customer service. I’ll give you a few examples. Tow Truck driver lady- Thank you for trying to fix my car even though you would have lost out on your towing fee if it did crank. A quick side note- Found her using YP Mobile- tow trucks and picked one closest to me. Gentlemen at Pep Boys- Thank you for whittling down a part to rig my car just enough that I could drive home and wait til Monday when the dealership opened. Harris Teeter- I know you charge a little more than some but I don’t care. Thank you for keeping your stores clean, for helping me get my kids & groceries in the car and for giving them free cookies. Holiday Inn- Thanks for making me feel special when I check in and for shuttling me around when I was careless. I stop and shop based on experiences; not based on the name that’s above the door.Sadly, I am sure we can all think of examples of bad customer service and have probably altered our own buying habits based on those. Earning a customer’s business just by advertising alone doesn’t exist anymore. Advertising speeds up the inevitable. If you have a good business, it will grow. Bad customer service or a bad product will result in people coming in and then leaving unhappy and telling people about their bad experience. That will put you out of business faster. If you truly want to earn a customer, then advertise, and then provide them with good customer service once they get there. It takes time to train your employees properly but it is quite simply the most important thing that you can do as a business owner. Teach them to be helpful, knowledgeable and just plain nice to the people that come in your door. Make sure they try to learn as much as they can about the items in your store or about the services you provide. Even though every transaction isn’t a “big ticket” sale, the interaction during it could cause that customer to come back to you for a lifetime. Harris Teeter- here I come!

‍Gayle Brown -ViaMark Wilmington