The other day I was reading a blog post by Leslie Haywood, the inventor and entrepreneur behind Grill Charms who successfully swam with the Sharks on Shark Tank. On this particular post, Leslie talks about not having a receptionist and personally taking calls when her customers come a knocking.
We’ve become accustomed to the world of automation and voice recordings and pressing numbers on our phone to try to reach a live person. I don’t know too many people who actually like this form of customer service and yet it seems we accept it to the point of even doing it ourselves with our own businesses.
Leslie’s no small fish, but her willingness to connect to the consumer defies common standards. She’s smart. People do business with people they like. People. That’s the magic word.
I once wrote a complaint letter to Nordstrom and got a pleasant letter in return from Mr. Nordstrom. Now I have no clue if he actually wrote it or even signed it himself for that matter, but the fact is I didn’t get some lame response from someone else down the ladder. I liked that. I liked that I came away feeling as though my voice was heard.
That’s precisely what I like about Leslie. She wants to be in the trenches with her customers. She knows she’s not conforming to corporate standards, but she’s providing a face, a real person behind the product.
To me, that’s just good business.
Success to you.
Melissa
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I couldn’t agree more. We are so accustomed to automation that it’s become an accepted practice. It’s so frustrating but when we get personal service it goes far in our minds. I had a similar experience at Nordstroms and got my voice heard.
Because of a RT I read from Leslie’s twitter I found this blog, Kind of a around the corner way of finding it, but I agree with your statement, and Leslie is a great spokesman for her product and also a great person to deal with. I had also done a review at my website on her Grill Charms, and she is great to work with.
Wilfred,
Thanks for the reply. Leslie is an inspiration, especially when it comes to connecting businesses to consumers.
Melissa
Hi, very interesting post, greetings from Greece!