Good customer service: why communication wins

Ever wonder why some customers rave about your work, while others seem disappointed—even though you did a great job?

Good customer service isn’t just about delivering quality work or giving extra perks. It’s often about something simpler, yet frequently overlooked.

I recently had an eye-opening experience at my car service center that changed how I think about customer satisfaction. The work was solid, yet something critical was missing—and it made all the difference when I finally spoke up.

In this episode, you'll discover the powerful yet simple shift that transformed my experience. Listen to learn how a small change can dramatically improve customer trust and loyalty.

Ready to turn your customers into raving fans? Tune in to find out exactly what makes customer service truly exceptional.

Resources:

• Want to increase your profitability? Grab my book “The Profit Bleed.“
• Looking to grow your construction business? Check out our exclusive group "The Contractors Collective.”
• Want employees to take more ownership? Check out our course - “Build Your Dream Team.”
• Are you struggling to hire the right people? Check out our “Contractors Hiring Blueprint” course.

Connect with Vicki on social media:

• YouTube: Vicki Suiter
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickisuiter
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuiterBusinessBuilders

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro & Defining Good Customer Service

Transcript

Does your team know what good customer service means to you? Listen to this episode and I think that you're gonna find a few things that if this is not part of what your culture is right now, can really make a difference in terms of the building, the trust and the identity that you wanna build in your business and in your community and with your customers. Hi, I'm Vicki Suiter, your host and welcome back to the Profit Builder Unscripted.

What do you think of when I say the words good customer service? Like what comes to mind for you? Is it that like you do really great work and that things are always like top notch and the best quality and the best results or best finishes? Does good customer service mean that you send people presents and gifts?

Does good customer service mean something else to you? I had an experience in this last couple of weeks that made me really think about this question about what does it mean to have great customer service or good customer service? And how do we know when we're delivering good customer service? And I've been asking people this question, like, because I had this very interesting experience with my car. And...

I own an Audi and Audi is known to have really great customer service. And so my, there was an issue with my car and I brought it into the shop and they didn't know what was wrong with it. And the gentleman who, you know, took down all my information, I did a test drive with them. You know, they were like, yeah, like here's what we're hearing. We're hearing what you're hearing. We don't know what the problem is, but we will investigate and we'll let you know.

And so I left and they didn't have a loaner car for me either, which was frustrating, but I'm like, okay, I get it. It's last minute. No problem. I'll figure it out. So I don't hear from them the next day. I don't hear from them the next day. And then I like the day after that, I start tracking them down, the service guy. And I'm like, what's the deal? And I leave them a message and I don't get a call back. And then I called back the next day and now it's Friday.

And it's towards the end of the day and I'm still not hearing back from him and I'm on hold and I'm on hold and I wait and I wait and then I finally have to leave a message for him. Monday rolls around and I still don't hear from him. Monday afternoon, and now I'm also calling the service manager who's not responding as well. I get his voicemail, I leave him a message. And by the time my little service guy, Tristan, calls me back on Monday. He's like, here's what's going on. like, you know, explains the whole situation to me, so on and so forth. We don't know yet. We're still investigating. We're going to do everything we can to help you out. we're going to, you know, we're not going to charge you for the analysis. 

I know I originally told you we were going to charge you, but we're not going to charge you. And I can tell like Tristan's voice that Tristan thinks that they are being good guys. They're being good Audi, that they're delivering good customer service. And I listened to him. I let him finish what he was saying. And I said, Tristan, here's the deal. I said, I appreciate that you're not gonna charge me for this assessment and this analysis. That's great. And I appreciate that he's also at that point said, hey, we'll get a loaner car figured out for you. I go, I really appreciate that. said, but I'm gonna tell you, the most frustrating part of this experience for me was the fact that I had to chase you down to get you to give me an answer. So at this point, what I want you to know is that while I appreciate those other things that you're doing and that you're trying to be a good steward, right? And to show that you care and that you really wanted to do the right thing.

You have left a very bad taste in my mouth and I now have lost trust with you that you have not returned my phone calls and I've had to chase you down and it's a problem for me. And I'd like to make an agreement with you that we can have with each other that you're going to respond to my voicemail or that more importantly that I don't have to chase you down to go get answers that you keep me updated every day. I said, even if it's just a text message, you don't have to have answers to what the problem is.

You just need to communicate with me about what's going on because I feel like I'm in the dark and when I'm in the dark you know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna chase you down I wanna know what's going on and he apologized he said I never want to have somebody have that experience it was great he goes I'm gonna give you my cell phone gave me a cell phone number he goes I will text you with updates and from that moment forward

Tristan kept me updated. texted me every day or every other day, but he kept his word about what he was gonna do and he kept me informed. And if I had not had that conversation with him, I would have just stood on it, which most people won't have that conversation with us, right? How many people don't wanna confront us? How many people don't wanna have that difficult or that hard conversation? And then they just have this conversation around about how we are and who we are in our businesses that actually is a bad conversation, a negative conversation, one where they don't trust us, where they don't believe us, that they just go, you know what, I'll never refer them. I'll never do that again. And so it just, you know, I'm sharing this story with you not to bash Audi. I love my car. And ultimately Audi figured out what the problem was and they fixed it they handled it they didn't charge me it was great, right?

They did everything that they needed to do. But if Tristan had continued to not keep his agreement and make me chase him down, there would have been a bigger problem there, right? It would have deteriorated Audi's reputation. Now, does Audi need me to uphold their reputation? Their car kind of stands for themselves. Well, no, they don't. But for us, for us little business owners out there,
trying to run a business, working really hard to do quality work. And Audi does quality work. They make beautiful cars. But the people who work for Audi are the ones who leave the experience in the customer's mind. And the question for us, for you and me here today as business owners is, does our team represent taking care of our customer? Do we know what it...what the definition of good service actually is. Because in Tristan's mind, it was, we go above and beyond in terms of taking care of your car. It had nothing to do with his communication.

He learned something that day. I learned something that day. And as I'm sharing with you, it's like, have we communicated with our teams and we've we let them know that part of what builds a reputation of a business that is trusted, where people refer us, where people want to come back and do work with us again, where we are building an identity of a business that is respected and trusted in our community really is so fundamental and so much around how we communicate. And are we good communicators? What does good communication mean, right? So in the case of my buddy Tristan, it meant keep me updated, right? How often do we do that with people on projects and construction projects that we just keep going along, but we don't have a regular schedule for keeping them updated? The most successful contractors I know have a way of keeping people updated every single solitary week on their schedule and on their dollars and on critical key items that they need from them, right? Whether it's change orders, selections, whatever. The other thing is a really simple thing. Do what you say you're gonna do when you say you're gonna do it. I just, I find for me, I don't know about you, but this is such an important thing that I feel like my word is my identity.

My word is what it is that is so important to me that when I keep my word and I keep my agreements, I feel like I build trust with people. And I know that that's true. so even if it's I have an agreement with somebody and we're not perfect, right? Nobody is. But it's like if I know I'm not going to keep, I can't make that agreement, right? I can't fulfill on what I said I was going to do. I renegotiate the agreement before it's a broken agreement.

So those, like just those few simple things, right? Communication, keeping people informed and keeping our agreements, doing what we say we're gonna do. Those two things I think are so important in terms of how we build our identity and how we build an organization that has great customer service. I would love to know your thoughts about this. If you would, drop a note down below and...

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Thanks for being part of this community. Thanks for listening and I look forward to seeing you next time on the Profit Builder Unscripted.