Service with a smile part 2
Can we GIVE a good customer service?
It is crisis in Brazil. And also for some of us Audio Visuals it is not easy. We can see that a lot of equipment is for sale at the moment… a sign that some companies and freelancers struggle to survive in Brazil. Last year was a good year because of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Big and small companies where able to get some pieces of the huge olympic pie. Not only foreign companies but also a lot of Brazilian companies, their co-workers and the freelancers.
But for this year and the next years it will be less… for all of us.
How to survive this Brazilian crisis is of course a little bit of luck involved, but… you need to work hard to get that luck on your side. Look for foreign clients and jobs at our JOBS page is one example. Work on your professional network on LinkedIN and visit broadcast related events. Learn more about your jobs by watching Webinars by Broadcast related companies as we mention a lot on our facebook and Twitter timelines every week. YouTube, a huge free source of knowledge. But there is more that also works for the local Brazilian market. By showing a practical example you may can add it to your workflow. It are these little changes that will do it. Some years ago we wrote already a column about the same subject so we add another case.
case 4
Past weeks we had an electrician at work at our venue, a small father and son company. They needed to do some re-wiring. After some days they were done, they did a nice job and worked hard. But…. All over the place they left dust, dirt, little pieces of wire, tie-raps, little pieces of tape etc etc. So we asked them to please clean that up. Their answer was: That is not our job!
When i worked with my father some 30 years ago also as an electrician in Europe, My father teached me this lesson. When you leave the place you worked, the place must look cleaner than when you arrived. That was a smart piece of marketing, because his clients spread the word to others, that my father did his job very well and that he left the place cleaner than before he came. The result is that my father with his tiny company was never without work.
Work hard and smart.
For us audiovisuals it is also in this small things. Do not charge your clients if they wants some little extra’s from you. Be very flexible with charging hours you worked to your clients. Make and keep backups of your footage for example and keep it, when they need it.. you will be the hero that you have kept it and you can even charge money for it than. When you are on location be prepared, so bring more than you need in cables, microphones, lenses and even power.
This type of ‘marketing’ will get you in front of your competition. Sometime things may look it is not your job or not important, but if you pamper your client by giving them an awesome service, being very flexible and delivering an outstanding quality… they will spread that word to others. It also means that your price is of less importance because they trust fully in you and your product. My message to you all is:
Start with it.
When you make it easy for your client and deliver an outstanding result, he will come back for sure. The return will take some time but it is worth it.
René Schaap
More info you can find on his LinkedIn: br.linkedin.com/in/connectingmedia follow him on Twitter René_Schaap
mentioned:
Olympic Games
Service with a smile
Jobs
Industrial Agenda