Are there any two words more important to a consumer than “customer service”? Well…. “free” and “stuff” when put together have their appeal, I suppose. Anyway…I’m a big customer service person.

Three weeks ago, before traveling to Toronto for the virtual assistance conference I spoke at, I scheduled an appointment for a hair cut. I just wanted to have myself looking all sleek and shiny - nothing dramatic.

“Just a trim,” is what I told the hair dresser. Because I had a very specific time frame to get my do do-ed, I wasn’t able to get an appointment with my regular stylist. Not a big deal, since I only wanted a trim.

I have very thick hair, and hair dressers are always having to thin it out. When this particular stylist asked me if I wanted it thinned, I told her that’s what Teresa always does (my regular gal) so she started to cut. However, apparently, thinning to this person meant layering. Before I knew what was happening, the hair I was planning to grow out a bit was being chopped into short layers right on the top of my head. I hate layers in my hair. I have some curl in my hair, and when it’s layered, because I have two young children and zero free time, I can’t do anything with it myself and it just ends up looking disheveled all the time.

When she was all finished, I grimaced at my reflection. I’ve never had a situation in a hair dresser’s chair where I wanted to cry, until that day. I told her I just didn’t like it, and asked if she could do something to fix it. It made me feel like I looked ten years older, and here I was just wanting to feel and look good for my conference. She looked at me, kind of puzzled, like she didn’t really know what to do, and then started cutting again.

I decided I would try it out, see if a few days would make any difference about the way I felt about it.

It didn’t work. Two and a half weeks later, I couldn’t look in the mirror. It was just awful. I made a call to the hair salon and explained that I had a hair cut a couple weeks prior and needed to get it fixed. My appointment was scheduled for Saturday morning (yesterday).

I was so happy to see Teresa. When I sat in her chair, the owner of the shop came over and apologized for the mis-communication and told me there would be no charge for my new do. I was shocked, really. I mean…was it the hair dresser’s fault that I didn’t like the haircut? Maybe it would have been great for someone else. Hair is such a personal, individual thing. The shop owner didn’t have to say anything. She didn’t even have to come over to chat with Teresa about the situation. But she did. She made me feel important. Told me she was just glad I came back, and that with two small children at home it’s important that I feel “hot”.  (At that point, I would have been happy with “not ugly”.)

Anyway, Teresa somehow cut my hair until it looked like I had more than when I started. She did a great job, and I left her a huge tip because it felt wrong to leave without paying.

THAT’s customer service. That experience will have me telling everyone I know (with hair) to check out Picasso’s in Charlottetown. The gal that cut my hair originally was a great hair dresser, it was partially my fault that I didn’t communicate properly what I was wanting. I don’t know. All I know, is that the shop owner went out of her way to ensure I was happy.

What do you do when someone’s not satisfied with the service or product you provide? Do you guarantee your work? Do you go out of your way to make sure that a customer never walks away unhappy? I hope so, because unhappy customers have huge mouths.

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This month, I’ve decided to feature one of my local and most active clients - Maureen Kerr of Kerr Consulting “Your Marketing Mavens”.

Your Marketing Mavens helps its clients to spread their remarkable business ideas effectively and inexpensively. Maureen’s ideal clients have a remarkable idea or business and just need a bit of help spreading their message. Many of these people are either intimidated by technology or simply unaware of the different ways Internet marketing can really improve their marketing efforts.

Kerr Consulting offers a ton of services, including: SWOT analysis, business plan assistance, writing marketing plans, creating newsletters and presentations, copywriting, website creation, and so on and so forth.

It’s really a joy working with ‘Moe’, she is definitely an ideal client for me. She has a great business and she’s a wonderful, ethical person to work with.

She likes us here at Mann Made Time, too. She talks about me all the time, which I love. Here’s an official testimonial she’s written for my website:

“Living in a rural community on an island off of the east coast of Canada requires an entrepreneurial person to leverage as much as possible in order to have a successful business. Throw in the mix being a single mom and living in a 150 year old house – I need all the help I can get. Thanks to my virtual assistant, Jaime Lee Mann from www.mannmadetime.com I have been able to get my new marketing business off the ground by utilizing her huge arsenal of expertise. She also tells me to breathe sometimes and takes the edge off of being a solo-preneur by being there whenever I need her. I love my VA. Jaime has done everything from brainstorming sessions, to editing letters, to going to client’s offices to set up systems, mailing letters, did I mention all of the advice she gives? I have out-sourced projects to many professionals over the years and using a virtual assistant has been one of the best returns on investment that I have ever made.”

We have truly partnered together and are improving each others businesses. It’s a match made in Heaven, really.

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I like to support local businesses as much as I can.

My laptop has been running a little slower than I’d like, so I decided to get another memory upgrade until I take the plunge to buy a new machine. Today, I brought my beloved computer to Derek Llewellyn at Microage in Charlottetown.

I’ve had a few different dealings with Derek, and I really love the service he’s obviously committed to providing his customers. I like to walk into a place, have a man in a suit shake my hand and call me by name. Call me crazy. That’s only possible in a small town, I think, but that’s why I like living in a small town. He congratulated me on the article about me in the paper a couple weeks ago and everything.

Anyway, it cost hardly anything for the upgrade, and I’m running much faster now.

My point of this post was to promote shopping locally. Often, the small businesses in your neighborhood will treat you better than the staff of a big box store. That’s not always the case, but I find it to be true more often than not.

I know that Derek at Microage wants my business. I know he wants my referrals. How do I know? Because he thanks me for my business, and my referrals, so I keep going back and sending people there. I know for sure the service they get will be second to none. That’s how the smart business owners or sales consultants get our repeat business, and our referrals. They treat us well so we go back.

Most local businesses will treat you just like that. They want your business, and they work hard for it.

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When I was nine or ten years old, I started my first business.

Growing up in an oceanfront home on PEI, I spent many hours on the beach collecting sea shells and beach glass. I can’t tell you how much I miss the smell of that salty shore…

Anyway, I don’t remember what inspired me, but I started gathering small pieces of driftwood, tiny little shells and beach glass, and turning them into custom pieces of jewelry. I made broaches and earrings, and I remember they were actually pretty nice.

After I created the pieces, I would coat them with shellac so they were nice and shiny. Of course, I also had custom cards I would attach them to, and they were ready to sell.

Believe it or not, I actually had craft stores take them on consignment and they sold them for me.

All it cost me for that little venture was the actual hardware for the broaches and earrings, a couple of drill bits and a can of shellac.  Who knows what it totaled…probably less than $10.  (When you’re nine years old, you’re not really busy doing much else, so my time wasn’t as valuable as it is now.)

At the end of the summer, when we went around to the shops to pick up the pieces that didn’t sell, and collect my fortune, I was astonished to have made a little over $300. I might as well have been handed a cheque for a million dollars. Talk about proud!

I believe I did the same thing the following year, but then I took another job picking strawberries…then it was baby sitting…and so on and so forth.

I will never forget how it felt to create something and put it out there in the world, then have someone buy it. Actually spend their hard earned money on it. I still feel that way each time I get a new client.

I had three meetings with three great people today who will hopefully turn into new clients. I am as pleased as I was then when I was nine years old. There has always been an entrepreneur inside of me, and I’m so glad she’s free!

When did you know you were a true entrepreneur? What prompted you to take this path? When did the entrepreneurial bug bite you?!

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I was pondering something last night while I was watching American Idol (and wondering why in the world that first guy sang a WHAM song) that I thought would make great blog material.

I had this dilemma when I was starting my business. I was brand new and had lots of administrative experience, but I was trying so hard to find that first client, and I felt like all of the more experienced VAs were getting all the work. I had a case of the self-doubts and wondered why anyone would want to work with me when I had no actual ‘virtual’ experience.

First of all, what didn’t strike me right away was that nobody needs to know how many clients you have. I didn’t write my website content stating “Newbie VA offers her services”. I used testimonials from past employers, tried to demonstrate my areas of experience, and whipped up a ‘corporate resume’ so in the event of a potential employer questioning my work history, I would be prepared. Interestingly enough, to this day nobody has asked to see a resume. I pushed those doubts aside, and worked with what I did have that the more experienced VAs might not. Time. I marketed the bejeezus out of my business. And it worked.

Second of all, it could be an interesting feature to play off of, if you’re bold. Why not advertise that you’re brand new in business. Offer a deal - your first client will receive 10% off your services for their first year - or something. A new business owner is full of energy. Full of motivation and momentum. A new business owner is a force to be reckoned with.

Sometimes, after being in business for a while, you get lots of referral business, you let your marketing efforts get stale, you feel confident that you’re going to continue to do alright. You’re busy, your systems might be getting a little old, you might have lost a bit of that entrepreneurial spark you had when you were just getting out of the gate.

Of course, with experience comes knowledge, expertise and trust.

I was thinking about this, in particular, when it comes to real estate agents. There is always someone new popping up. They come, they go. Some stay for a long time.

A seasoned ‘top producer’ has a lot going for her. A great database full of contacts, name recognition in her market area. Lots of word of mouth referrals, etc.

Does that mean there’s no hope for a new agent starting out in that area? Not at all.

A new agent is coming on to the scene full of new ideas, a drive to become successful and catch up with the big guys.

I was perusing Active Rain and found a new agent in Charlottetown that has a great blog over there. Good for her. She was the only agent I saw in this area that didn’t just plug in an RSS feed for ‘PEI’ . I feel that’s cheating. It’s not really blogging. This agent actually wrote an interesting and useful post. She took the time to share something with her readers, and in turn, her blog has much more to offer than local news, weather reports, and other mundane information that doesn’t belong on Active Rain.

I am going to keep my eye on this person. I’ve seen her name in a lot of places, and I think she is going to be one of the ‘top producers’ in a couple of years time.

So what do you think?

When you’re in need of a service, would you rather work with someone that’s brand new - full of energy and drive?

Or would you tend to work with a seasoned pro. Someone who’s name has been around for awhile?

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