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Good Saturday morning!
I would like to share my business takeaway from this week.
I began the week by sharing a post, "High Tech - High Touch" where I briefly touched on technology and the value of customer service. During the week I read a post asking the question, "What areas can Black businesses do to improve?" The question may have been phrased differently. The consistent response was "customer service". By the end of the week, I read two posts where people shared their "customer service" experiences when dealing with BOBs. Both posts had a constructive tone about their negative customer experience and challenging those businesses and all of us to focus on our customer service. Most responses to the other posts were positive and supportive. Unfortunately, there were some who interpreted the posts as "tearing us down". I say, "unfortunately" because not everyone has learned the difference between constructive feedback and tearing someone down. I don't know if anyone read my post!
I heard Minister Louis Farrakhan once say, "A wise man listens to his critics." I know this may be contrary to what we have learned so let me put it in context. A critic does not necessarily mean "hater". Customers who point out your shortcomings which is something business owners should want are helping us to improve. We must have the business maturity and savvy to separate truthful feedback from unreasonable customer expectations. We may have valid reasons for our shortcomings but the reasons do not eliminate the shortcomings Elimination requires corrective actions. It is has been proven that the sooner you resolve an issue the less it will cost you. So why wouldn't you want to be told about gaps in our business.
Customers may accept our shortcoming but they rarely accept being mistreated, devalued, or disrespected this includes their time. Our customers deserve "at least" the products and services on par with what they are paying. Great businesses are built on delivering more.
If our mantra is going to be "Black Excellence" then we not only have to accept the constructive feedback, we need to seek it.
Darin C. Wright
CEO/President
The Wright Group, LLC
www.thewrightgroupllc.com
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