Expensive Means Excellence

Tis me with my new car.

Okay, it isn’t. The gull-wing monster actually belongs to Boris Becker. Last night he went into the nearby swanky Italian restaurant, I went to the posh curry house over the road.

Here’s a customer service tale.

Indian Zilla clearly prides itself on upmarket fayre. Yet as my dining partner and I were about to place our order, the table opposite had this to say as their bill was brought;

Well, the food here in the past has always been excellent, but not today. It was overcooked. And not as tasty as normal. You charge a lot of money so it has got to be right. And this wasn’t.

Fascinating. The lady making the point was not angrily ranting. It was a measured speech.

My first thought was that this was just the kind of feedback people should appreciate and accept. But wondered whether it would. How well does anyone react to less than sparkling reviews?

Then I realised that salespeople are usually paid a decent wage. So surely the same applies to us? Our ‘delivery’ (making pitches, sending documentation, arranging meets) should match our paygrade. They should exude excellence.

Then I thought, hang on though, everyone should aspire to excellence, regardless of how hefty the price tag.

I’m witnessing a move away from detailed communications. Someone told me the other day about a big investment bank in London that has dispensed with laptops. The result being that with tablets only, staff are now sending the shortest of messages to each other.

I’m not advocating writings that require several scrolls down to read, but the back up docs stil need to be there, and they still need to set you apart.

How well does your approach to written comms match the expectations of your product offering?