I heard a story recently of a man who went to a job interview. When he arrived, he was told to take a seat in a conference room and wait for the CEO to meet with him. He was told that the CEO was running a bit late, but he would be in as soon as he could. While the man sat in the room alone, a side door opened and a custodian came in. The custodian asked if the man minded if he cleaned up the room, and that it would take just a couple of minutes. As the room was being cleaned, the man who was awaiting the interview was clearly exasperated. He tried not to make eye contact with the custodian and only responded to his questions with one-word answers or nods of his head. When the custodian left, the receptionist entered the room and told the man he was free to leave.

"Wait a minute,” he exclaimed in despair, "I am supposed to be having an interview with the CEO of this company!”

"You just did,” stated the receptionist, "and he told me you didn’t have much to say!”

"You mean the janitor was the boss?”

"Yes,” stated the receptionist. "You see, we are a company that values people, not titles. We are looking for team members who appreciate the contributions of a custodian as well as the CEO. You clearly are not qualified to work here.”

How you treat people really matters. This is played out every day in your business and it has a big impact on your marketing. Think about this: marketing is charged with promoting your most endearing qualities and putting your best foot forward. Marketing is responsible to build the reputation of your brand. However, your marketing credibility will get tossed out the window if you do not back up the marketing talk with action. This is where the customer experience is so important. One of the most common reasons that previous customers buy from a competitor has nothing to do with price or the quality of the product. It has to do with the disrespect they feel from employees they are dealing with during the first transaction. This is why we stress that customer service should be as much a part of your marketing strategy as advertising.

Your customer service success hangs on three key principles:

• Are you really listening to the customer to understand their problem? Too often customer service communication feels like a preconceived list of solutions that may not fit the present situation. You will do well to listen and repeat the problem back to the customer to make sure you understand them. Being understood is very important to every customer who has had a problem, so you need to learn to listen intently to them and assure them you get it.

• Are you following up with them in a timely and proactive manner? You should stay in contact even during the process of resolving the problem. It is so much better to communicate too much than too little. This helps you communicate that you value them as a customer.

• Are you communicating a realistic solution and treating them with respect regardless of the outcome? Let’s face it: not all customer problems are going to be resolved to their satisfaction. If you cannot realistically give them what they want, do they still feel you are respecting them? If so, you have a chance to retain them as a customer.

Keep in mind that there is a lot of communication that happens non-verbally. A calm and pleasing tone of voice, eye contact, shaking hands, smiling – all of these communicate positive things to the customer. And that should happen regardless of who the customer is or is not in your mind. On the flip side, speaking in barely audible mumbles, refusing to look at another person in the eye when talking to them, tight-jawed scowls, rolling your eyes, sighing, etc., all communicate your indifference, disgust, condescension, etc. The bottom line is this: if you don’t respect people, even when you are not talking to them verbally, they will draw quick conclusions and write you and your company off as something they will avoid in the future. All the slick marketing in the world cannot fix what your bad communication damages.

When you are making marketing plans, include customer service training as a key marketing device. Your marketing credibility is at stake. Make sure you are not losing future sales by turning off your customer base. How you treat people really matters!