Tom Merriott

When I sat down to write this post, I had just finished a conversation with a contractor that triggered this topic. The problem we were discussing is irrelevant but at one point I asked him what his customer service team thought about the situation. His response was “I don’t know,” quickly followed by “How can I find out?” My gut reaction was to blurt out “Just ask them!”, but then I realized how tough that would be. This contractor had no ongoing dialogue with the people in his office. What I needed to help him with most was to open that line of communication.

Ask yourself right now: Are you in touch with your customer service staff? If you’re not, be aware, in most cases these people know more about some aspects of your business than you do.

So, how can you start the information flowing? Try just meeting with them. Seriously, this seems scary to a lot of you because you are more comfortable with the technical and business parts of your business, but you need to meet with these folks. They see everyone else in the organization meet on a regular basis and sometimes wonder what’s going on. We need to fill them in on what’s happening and also get their invaluable feedback.

Set a short strictly timed meeting once a week. Make time to address company news (what’s happening), things that might be specific to their jobs, and the final segment, which will eventually become your most valuable, is feedback from the team. This will be not be good right away if you have ignored them, but once they feel comfortable and realize that you value their input, you will learn a lot.

These people that you have ignored know what advertising really works for your company. Not which ads generate the most calls but the best calls, the easiest to book. They also know company rules that you might not be aware of like which techs will not run a call after 3:00 p.m. Asking about things from their perspective will give you another angle to look at your business and help you improve.

You need to get in the habit of speaking to your internal team. You owe it to yourself and your business.