Serving Your Customers is What Matters Most

 

I was reading the Austin Business Journal, as I do frequently to keep up with what’s going on with Austin businesses, and stumbled upon a great quote that I wanted to share.

The article was about Abby Office Centers, which provides furnished executive office space, naming a new CEO.

However, it wasn’t the article that caught my attention but rather a quote that was in the article. As Chris Brown was looking to replace himself as CEO for his rapidly growing company, he decided to look for a replacement in the hospitality industry and chose recruiter Davis Morris to help.

Here’s the quote I thought was great— “We quickly determined that this is a service business. It’s not a real estate business,” Morris said.

I thought this quote from Brown’s recruiter perfectly explains how I feel about the business I’m in of commercial real estate. It’s actually not even specific to commercial real estate—it’s really relative to every business that’s out there.

If everyone treated their businesses AND their customers like a service-focused business, many more businesses would succeed and quite possibly make a bit more money.

I’m constantly trying to put myself in my client’s shoes and try to think about what they might be dealing with in their business—which is often more complex than I knew—that is, until I asked.

It’s really as simple as asking “How is business going?” That one small question can lead to a HUGE response and sometimes, I can even help them overcome some of the issues they might be facing.

I’ll leave you with one final thought…..

Remember to service your customers by asking thoughtful questions or sometimes just be there to listen. It can make all the difference in building a long term relationship with your customer.