It's great when things go right, but the true measure of a service is how a business responds when things go wrong!

As customers, we often experience the exhilaration of meeting with a new supplier. They’re the one who “tick all the boxes” and “tell us everything we want to hear.” They can also make you feel like you’ve FINALLY engaged with someone who’s going to solve all your problems and help catapult your business into the stratosphere. Sounds too good to be true, right? Unfortunately, it often is. The reality being that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, is rarely as close as we would like it to be.

Businesses have many struggles: the struggle to establish and maintain a cohesive team of performers, the struggle to build and maintain a sizeable base of loyal and cooperative clients while trying to balance the associated workflow demands. Along with this, are the inevitable moments when things go belly up and businesses need to respond, provide support and/or try to rectify situations in order to uphold their promised level of care to their clients.

It’s easy to make promises and say all the right things in glossy brochures. But if you don’t back your claims and deliver on your promises, it can leave a very sour taste in the mouths of disgruntled customers. I’ve experienced that sour taste many times, when I’ve felt I’ve gone from being a valued client to just a number.

To this day, I cannot understand how there are businesses out there who think the quick win is the way to go. Maybe they think this way because they’ve experienced rapid growth and, as a result, operations have spiraled out of control. Or maybe it’s simply a numbers game and they need to get more hits to overpower the losses? Whatever the reason, I really believe that in the long term, the overall reputation of the brand suffers and the corporate mountain becomes that much harder to climb.

When we first opened the doors to Alexander Appointments, our core mission was to ensure that we always backed what we sold and delivered what we promised. We certainly have lost opportunities and missed financial wins here and there as a result, but because we always strive to keep our moral compass pointing north, it has brought us organic growth, long-term relationships, trust and a brand that people are happy and confident to be associated with. I think this far outweighs any short term gains we may have earned at a client’s or candidate’s expense.

I believe there is still room for good “old-fashioned” customer service in today’s business climate. At a time when information is so easily accessed by society, businesses need to be extremely considerate of their duty to back their claims. Not doing so, has the potential to hurt, or at least significantly hinder, the reputation, growth and development of a brand, not to mention the fact that it feels good to do something good!