Video Transcript: "Customer Care and Quality Control"
In this video, we'll be exploring biblical standards for customer care and quality control, and that's quality control, specifically as it relates to providing the best service possible and the best products possible for your customers, starting out for understanding the biblical standards for customer care, we have to first understand that we're not working for our customer ultimately, and that might may seem a little bit counterintuitive when we think about customer service, but ultimately, we are working for God and Jesus as our customer and our owner and so this is not just thinking about God as the owner of the company, but actually the owner of us as individuals. Going back to this idea in Romans 12 of offering your body as a living sacrifice, we are completely sold out to Jesus and to his plan for our lives and for our businesses. And so the starting point is to understand that we are ultimately working for God Colossians 3:23. Says, whatever you do. So this is whether you're selling products, selling services, or just kind of working around, doing clerical work around your company, janitorial work or legal work, whatever your role is for your company, whatever you do, do it with all your heart as working for the Lord not for men. And so when your customer is upset and you just really want to kind of move on to the next one, recognize that it's not just about that customer. It's about honoring God. And so the way that we treat people, the way that we treat our customers, is exactly regardless of how they're treating us, or regardless of our how we feel about that person. We need to understand that the way that we treat our customers, our coworkers, our subordinates, our bosses, whoever it is in the marketplace, that is exactly how we're treating the Lord Jesus Christ, because the verse continues, it is the Lord Christ you are serving. So let that be your starting point for understanding the biblical standard for customer care that your ultimately your customer is God. Moving along, we need to establish covenants with our customers. And yes, this is a biblical term covenant. One definition is is to cut. When you look at the Hebrew definition of this concept of beret, spelled berith, you can see there the Hebrew lettering there. But this idea of cutting a deal and our modern vernacular, it goes back to this idea of cutting a covenant, and that an animal would actually be physically separated in two and put on either side, and those that were entering into the covenant together would walk between the two pieces of that animal, and as to say that if I don't deliver on if I don't hold up my end of this obligation, of this agreement, of this covenant that let me be as the Two pieces of this animal is essentially what was being communicated. And so going a little further into this definition of covenant, one scholar, Weinfeld, he asserts that this idea of covenant or berith is not simply an agreement or settlement between two parties. So this isn't just sort of, you know, an agreement where it's really not that big a deal if one of you backs out of, you know, depending on the way you know, your feel, maybe there's personal dynamics you just don't like the person or whatever, and that you can just sort of back out of the deal. That's not the idea of covenant, as is commonly suggested.
Instead, the term implies, first and foremost, the notion of imposition, liability or obligation. And he goes on to propose that the word berith would have come from the Akkadian term biritu, which means clasp or fetter. And so there is a very real sense of obligation when you enter into contracts, when you enter into these covenants with your customer to where it really doesn't depend on them upholding their end of the. Agreement. What matters is that you're going to do what you said you're going to do. And one of the companies that has really taken this concept to heart is a company called Flow automotive, and so they're selling cars, and this has been a 50 year guiding principle for this company, they said that a covenant with our customers to be a place, this is what they've established, a covenant with our customers to be a place that keeps its promises and is worthy of their trust. And notice it doesn't say that they keep their promises as long as they like the customer, or as long as the customer is nice to them or whatever, but that they keep their promises and is worthy of their trust, for example, and this is how they implement it into their business processes and policies. The fix it right the first time. Service guarantee ensures promises are kept, so even if they just feel like in a in a certain situation, you know, there's this idea of situational ethics and and you know, really, what it means is, in the situation, my ethics kind of go out the Window sometimes. But because that they have made this part of the way their culture and a guiding principle, really a North Star, True North principle for their company, that if they don't fix it right, and you know, they sell cars and they repair them when they break, when people bring them in, and that they have committed that they are going to fix it right the first time, and that they will absolutely guarantee that. And so that's one of the ways that they live out this idea of covenant in their business. And going along with that as well, we must set and manage customers expectations. So when you're going to enter into a covenant or this this imposition, this liability, it's important to define what the scope of that covenant is going to be. So a stat, and we can do this through clearly understood contracts that define the scope of what we're promising to the customer and and so this is very important to make sure that your marketing team, your sales team, understands what the what the scope is of what your company is offering can offer unless your salespeople, or maybe you're kind of wearing both hats in your company, but just making sure that you're not making promises that you can't keep, or that are going to take away the profitability of your company if you continue to operate that way. And this goes back to a couple of units ago where we talked about how without profit, your company is not only not going to grow, but it's actually going to die. And so it's critical to set and manage your customers expectations, and then to over communicate the delivery status of what the customer has paid for and this is especially important in industries like mine, where when I enter into a contract with an author to publish their book, there are a lot of steps in that process, and typically it
spreads out over a period of months and from the time that we first enter into the contract to the time that they actually get that first book into their hands and are ready to start selling it. And so there is a lot of communication that has to happen in order to make sure that the customer that the client is comfortable with the situation that they are your your re your establishing trust going forward, as you over communicate the delivery status of what the customer has paid for. And then you know your sales people, your marketing people, they love to be able to make these promises that your operations team has to keep, and of course, this can create a lot of stress and a lot of interpersonal conflict in organizations if this is not, if everybody is not involved in this process of understanding what the scope of the contract Is and making sure that the company that the pricing is properly priced, the services are properly priced, and that everybody has a good working understanding of what can and cannot be done in order to serve that customer based on the the need for that company. To remain profitable. And one of the ways that you can adapt in various situations, if a customer says that, you know, I just have to have this next level of service. And you know, they want to kind of graph, they want you to graph that into the current contract. Sometimes you know, if that wasn't communicated initially, then you're going to have to then turn that into a new service under a new contract. But another way you can do this is to establish tiered pricing. So this is our this is our good plan, this is our better plan, and this is our best plan and and, you know, maybe start out with showing them what they can get at kind of the entry level, but then kind of show behind, you know, door number two, that there is this much better package that you can get, you know, assuming that You have the budget for it, and that these services and these additional features of the product are going to be, you know, something that you're going to want to pay for. So establish tier pricing. But the most important thing is is not to get the sale. The most important thing is to clarify what the scope of that covenant, of that contract is going to be, and then over communicate the delivery status to make sure that the customer is aware of what's happening, to make sure that they're in some customers, you know, in my business, there some customers like they want, they're pinging you much more frequently. And then other customers, they're just like, you know, tell me when it's done. They're not as interested in kind of how everything is being made and how everything is being processed. But when you over communicate, you really cannot go wrong doing that. But set and manage customers expectations, really. This is the golden rule principle, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and and so you know, although you may, you may wish that you could, you've paid for a service, and now you want them to do these other special favors for you. And you know you're not necessarily willing to pay extra. You're just kind of hoping that they're going to bend over backwards to do that, and you really wouldn't want somebody to do that to you. So you know they're in some people are going to be
a little more pushy than others, but the bottom line is, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and recognize that if you are making promises that your company just can't keep, based on your current pricing structure, your current the current workload, that's another factor that especially in the service industry, once you reach capacity, you have to be very honest with your customers, give them that worst case scenario about what their what they should expect in terms of how long it's going to take you to deliver on the covenant that you have entered into with that with that customer, with that client, so do unto others as you would have them Do unto you, and build on a foundation of integrity and trust with your customers, with your clients. Jesus said, but let your Yes be Yes, and your no no and so don't waver once you identify what the what the agreement is going to be going forward. You know, don't feel a lot of pressure to have to deliver beyond that. Just make sure that you're adjusting your pricing, that you're offering other add ons, if, if you and if, and if that's not in your company's wheelhouse, then do the right thing and refer them to another company that can offer that. And so that's just another way that you can quickly and easily help them out to get their need met, because you truly care about that customer, and that just because you can't do it in your company, you know, refer them to somebody who can, and that also establishes reciprocity and goodwill with potentially other companies in your industry and and maybe in other industries as well. But let your yes be yes, let your no be no when you say you're going to do something, do it no matter what it takes. I mean, I had a guy that we had to have our driveway pressure washer. Moved into a new house and and the we finally got an HOA notice after a couple months, saying that we needed to pressure wash our driveway. And so for those of you who don't know what HOA is, the homeowners association, they will come around and just inspect all. The properties, make sure everything is looking good for the neighborhood and and so they so we had to get this done. So the guy came and did a great job of power washing the driveway. And then he power washed our deck. And he kind of tore it up a little bit, left some some streaks where the power washes put too much pressure and, and just kind of left kind of strange patterns in the in the special type of wood that we have on our deck and, and so he said, You know what? I'm gonna get this deck painted for you free of charge. All you need to do is get the paint and I'll paint it for you. And so, you know, although I didn't want to have to buy, you know, all that paint, I went ahead and went forward with it. So he uses that paint and ends up just really, actually messing up the painting job as well. And and then at the end of that, he said, Okay, I'm not going to try to do this anymore on my own. I'm going to hire another company. So in the end, he ended up spending 10 times more than I had actually paid him to do the original service, but he paid 10 times more out of his own pocket to make it right, even though he messed up our deck, you know, the painting job that just finished yesterday, as a matter of fact, now the
deck looks incredible. The deck is just amazing. Going to give the guy a great, great review for that. But, you know, he built on a foundation of integrity and trust, and so even though he probably should have committed to do to working with our deck in the first place, just because it's a different type of material than most companies are used to, he's I was just still so impressed with his integrity on the matter and carrying it out. And that's a kind of and it really just challenged me. It was just a great reminder to always do the right thing and deliver on your promises, and at the same time don't over promise and not properly compensate the person doing the work. And so yeah, you might have to lose some money on the job if you have to fix something that wasn't done right the first time again, going back to that flow autos, fix it right the first time, guarantee and so don't over promise and not properly compensate the person doing the work. And so you may again, you may just not have the capacity in your company, refer them to the company who can do that and always be on time. That's another very important part. And if you're not going to be on time, then make sure that you are over communicating that with your client, with your customer. You know, because sometimes deadlines do get busted, and so you just have to make sure that as long as the integrity and trust is still in place with your customer. Now, if you're just repeatedly, and I've been in this situation in business before where people will promise things and they will just break one deadline after, it's like they don't even care about their integrity. It's like they just don't even have a world view again, I think it goes back to when your customer is God, when the way when you understand that the way that you're treating your customer is exactly the way you're treating Jesus, because we're called to do our work as unto God, because we are serving The Lord Jesus Christ, then it's going to make a massive difference in that level of accountability. And then, as it relates to customer care, build relationships with your customers. So don't just view them as transactions. And then, you know, once they stop paying you money, or, you know, you just, just treat them like people and view them holistically. Understand that they have families. Understand that if they're, you know, they're struggling to make the commitment to spend that money. Understand that they're choosing, probably between they're having to make a sacrifice for their fan, their household finances, so that they can purchase your product if, if you're a business to consumer company or business to business. I mean, other businesses are struggling as well oftentimes. But just build those relationships with your customers so you can understand what their needs are, that you can better serve them. I love this passage. When Nathaniel met Jesus and Nathaniel he says, how do you how do you even know me, that you would call me? How did you even hear how did you know me? And Jesus said, Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree. I saw you and and so Jesus was very he understood the people that he brought on to his team, the people that he was called to serve. He spent time among them. He identified with them
and and that established incredible amount of goodwill and trust and rapport between Jesus and those he was serving. And another practical way you can do this is to maintain a customer database. You know, for example, even when you're sending out emails to your email list, go in and check and see who is opening your emails, who is opening all of your emails, and this is also telling you that there's some people that are far more interested in what you're doing than other people, and which is totally fine, because those people are getting certain needs met elsewhere. But then maybe, maybe you could reach out do surveys. That's something I do with my authors periodically, is send out a survey that they can let me know. How are we doing? How's your experience been? Because we're constantly wanting to improve how we're serving our clients and then delight your customers. I love when Jesus said, If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. And in that context, he's talking about, you know, when Roman soldiers, you know, put you into forced labor to make you carry, you know, carry their their baggage, or whatever, go with them two miles. Even that. You got to do it anyway, but just go ahead and do it two miles because recognize that it is God that you're serving. And just that level of kindness, it just goes such a long way with people that it begins to show them that wow, this person, this company, really is working for a purpose greater than money. They're working for a purpose greater than just this temporary transaction that they're they're actually wanting a relationship with me. Why else would you go two miles with somebody if you weren't trying to point them to something beyond just that temporary transaction that you're wanting to when you're when you go the extra mile for customers, for clients, and you're going to have the opportunity, for sure that that you have an opportunity to delight them, to do something that is remarkable, that they will then go and tell their friends about and this kind of spills back over into the marketing unit, because your current customers, for many small businesses, including mine, almost all of our new clients are coming from referrals, and those are people who have been served by our company that are going to then go and tell their friends and the people who trust them to trust their take on different companies they're going to they're going to follow up on what those people have to say and do business with those kinds of companies that they have some relationship with. So delight your customers. Again. Keep this in the context of defining the scope of those contracts as covenants that you are establishing with your customers. So the go with them two miles. When somebody asks you to go one mile, it doesn't always mean that you do it for free. Again, you have to consider the whole everything we're talking about in this course together, because the profit is what will sustain the business. And so if you are, if you're getting paid to go one mile, and that's all the resources that you have to pay the people that are doing the work to provide that service, but you're going to promise you're going to go with them two miles, then you're going to be out of business. And so understand that this is
not saying. This is really a heart attitude of I want you know what's going the next mile is, well, we can't provide that service, but let me refer you to another company who can do that that's going the extra mile, and it's being a good steward with the resources and the people that are within your company, or you can establish another service offering, and again, going back to tiered pricing, where you can offer other options if they're wanting that second mile. Then then you feel free to go ahead and do that, as long as you can absorb the costs of going that second mile. But I think this is talking about more of a simple outlook on life, on business, on. Customer Relations. It's really just that attitude, and you just see it as soon as you go to check out somewhere, at a store or at a restaurant. It's pretty obvious if that, if that person wearing the uniform wants you to be there or not, or if you're just sort of an inconvenience to them, and so when customers feel like you're inconveniencing them, it's probably time to you're probably doing too much. You probably need to bring on somebody else certainly check your attitude and make sure that you're working for the Lord, not for men, but But you may just have too much on your plate, and and, and I've been there, I can relate to that, where you were just so overwhelmed that the thought of being able to provide that second mile of service is is just, it's just so difficult. And so you have to manage your energy, manage your capacity, and expand your capacity, but make sure that you're not you're not burning yourself out and burning your company out. And the last point here under Customer Care is to if you've defrauded your customer, and I'm using defraud. It in a pretty loose sense here. If you have not delivered, if you said you were going to do something and you didn't get it done, make it right. And this is what as I was saying, the pressure washer that messed up the pressure washing on our deck, and then he tried to paint it, and then he messed up the paint. He ended up not only what, and I'll just read this passage here, but he he restored back tenfold what I paid. It says that in Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold, Lord, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold. And Jesus said to him, today, salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. And so Zacchaeus had been taking advantage of people, exploiting people, and he restored it back fourfold. And then I've got a pressure washer that he really wanted to do a good job. He wasn't trying to take advantage of anybody, but he made a commitment that he wasn't able to deliver on and made some mistakes, and yeah, there were some things that he should have done differently, but you know what he did? He restored it back. Now we have a deck that looked even more beautiful than it ever would have looked had we just had it cleaned. We have basically a brand new, beautiful deck, and it cost him 10 fold. He restored back 10 fold, what I originally paid for that pressure washing and for that initial paint that was effectively wasted. So if, if you have not done done right by your customer, make it right. All right. See you
in the next video.