MAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS GIGGLE WITH DELIGHT!

John Ingrisano — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:20:55 +0000

I’m an old, crusty dog, writing about business and doing dog-and-pony presentations for better than 35 years. So, I’m hard to surprise and even harder to delight! Still, that’s what happened this week.

As you may recall, in the name of shameless self-promotion, I sent out a notice a few days ago announcing that my biz blog, The Freestyle Entrepreneur, had been named one of the best blogs for entrepreneurs. That tickled me.

But what really got me giggling was a card I received a few days later from Dean Lund, my insurance agent with American Family. The card, with a hand-written note and a copy of my email announcement, caught me totally by surprise, especially since of the hundreds (thousands? Millions?) of people who were sent the notice, Dean was the only one to send a congrats note. (And, no, no, no, this is not criticism of anyone; we’re all busy.)

This does explain why Dean is my insurance agent and has been for about 15 years. Now, I could probably find insurance cheaper, and I get offers in the mail all the time. But Dean has always been there for me, even now that I live more than 150 miles from his office and haven’t actually seen him face to face in at least 10 years. I need service or have a question? He or one of his staff makes sure it is taken care of 100 % of the time.

My point: Nothing that Dean does is all that mystical or extraordinary. He just always walks the walk when it comes to top-of-the-line service. Most of all, he is aware of his clients and knows how rare it is for people to receive an attaboy (or attagirl). We are all pretty much starved for appreciation; yes, even an old dog like me. (Scratch me behind the ear and say, “Good fella,” and I’ll wag my tail for hours!)

The bottom line: The five minutes Dean Lund took to send me that card not only made me giggle and earned my appreciation, but it also earned my business for a long time to come.

So, work hard, make money, have fun, and find a way to make your customers giggle. — JRI

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The Freestyle Entrepreneur — winner of the 2010 Top 35 Entrepreneur Blog awards from OnLine MBA.

CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD

John Ingrisano — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:06:28 +0000

The award goes to Badger Wholesale in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Here’s why:

I was chatting with Dean Tenor last week, when his phone rang. Dean is the owner of Dairy Deans, a small ham ‘n egger eatery overlooking Lake Michigan in Algoma, Wisconsin. Dairy Deans is the kind of place where the coffee is strong, the portions are not just big but also good, and the locals gather every morning to chow down and chat. It’s a small business, but as long as Dean manages it closely, it provides a good living for his family.

So, as I said, while we were talking, Dean’s phone rang. He glanced at the number, frowned and said, “I’d better take this,” as he stepped out of the conversation.

He returned five minutes later, snapping his phone shut and grinning. “Boy, that call just saved me a few bucks,” he announced. As it turned out, the call was from a warehouseman at Badger Wholesale, a food vendor wholesale distributor in Green Bay.

“This guy — I never did catch his name — said he was going over my weekly order,” Dean explained, “and he wanted to confirm that I wanted 150 pounds of tomatoes. It didn’t sound right, but I really had no idea, so we went over the entire order.

“Finally, he came again to that 150 pounds of tomatoes, and I realized that it was supposed to be potatoes, not tomatoes. Big difference.

“Do you believe it? This guy just noticed that, based on my past orders, that 150 pounds of tomatoes didn’t sound right, so he took the initiative to call me up to double check. That’s customer service.”

I had to find out more, so I followed up with Badger Whole. Scott Van Den Heuvel, the store manager, almost shrugged off the incident. “With our business,” he told me, “customer service is number one. We’re not the biggest guys on the block, so we just have to be the best.”

No argument from me, Dairy Dean or any of Badger Wholesale’s other customers I talked with. Good job. With that kind of go-the-extra-mile-and-then-some attitude, Badger Wholesale is one of those businesses it’s downright fun to write about.

Lesson to be learned? You know what it is. Now just go out and do it. And while you’re at it — work hard, make money, have fun.

– John R. Ingrisano
The Freestyle Entrepreneur

The Freestyle Entrepreneur » customer service

MAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS GIGGLE WITH DELIGHT!

CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD