TRC Online Meeting Blog: October 2014 Archives

To be attentive is defined as thinking about or watching something carefully: paying careful attention to something. When we speak of being attentive we imagine a situation that is detailed and precise. This situation comes from possible planning and preparing in order to ensure the best possible outcome or scenario.

In Kenneth Blanchard's book “Legendary Service” we learn that attentiveness comes into play once an organization has clearly identified its service vision. According to the book “the next step is to get clear on who its customers are and what they want”.

By learning who your customers are and what they want you can better serve them. You must realize that your customers will vary and have specific preferences and needs according to their own business model. In our industry of conferencing we must clearly define who are customer is and how they plan to use our service in order to service them to the best of our ability. I would say this holds true in any industry. We must first define their specific needs, and then put the best possible solution in place to allow them to get the most from our solution.

In his book “Legendary Service - The Key Is to Care” author Patrick Blanchard boldly states, “Simply put, companies can achieve Legendary Service by showing their customers they care about them.”

He then provides a compelling example on the use of regularly scheduled meetings where employees and managers can dig into the critical issues that can allow an organization to “consistently deliver ideal service that keeps customers coming back and results in a competitive advantage for your organization.” Blanchard also describes how managers can engage team members to contribute ideas for providing better customer service through the use of a customer service model based on the acronym ICARE.

Two Rivers Conferencing utilizes Blanchard's guidance in its strategies for enhancing the quality of our customer service. We routinely conduct Weekly Sales / Service Meetings with our Director of Customer Service Kristina Owen. This meeting is chaired by our Managing Partner, with our President & CEO and selected members of his finance, accounting and business operations team in attendance. Using this approach allows us the opportunity to fully evaluate Kristina's service activities in light of current business developments and other ongoing initiatives.