When everything looks the same: Work day… work thoughts…
We have an event coming up in a couple weeks where our client requested books be shipped to the venue. My job as the Distinction Engineer (how’s that for a new hat?) must ensure that these books arrive on a specific date at a specific time, otherwise they will be refused. So I connect with the publisher to request shipment from the warehouse to the venue. I am told the cost of shipment for 13 boxes will be $801.56. OUCH! Why so much? “The only way to ensure they deliver on that exact day in the exact time window will be to expedite the shipment via UPS 2nd Day Air A.M.”
Now the publisher’s warehouse is home to books from a ton of authors and shipment requests are a specialty. So why exactly didn’t the expert suggest a courier service? Direct shipping to a local courier for delivery will save us about $600 bucks — I book speeches, consulting & training. Shipping is not my gig. This simple suggestion would’ve cost them nothing and saved their valued client/customer quite a bit of profit. Instead, what they provided was simply a price quote. A price quote I could’ve gotten online myself. Of course, I no longer trust them to provide SERVICE, but know my requests will be PROCESSED.
And that’s why everything looks the same.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a Wal-mart cashier or a bank teller or the CEO of ABC Big Company — if your job depends on customers/clients, you should strive to service them in a manner that makes them want to do business with you.