Rugby | Customer Service and that little extra| Richard Smith Business Development

Rugby | Customer Service and that little extra

Whilst on several other rants over the past couple of weeks, I paused for breath at some damn brilliant customer service, something many of you business owners should learn from.

For those following me on twitter and reading some of my personal stuff will know that I am a big fan of Rugby, not so much the ‘big league’ stuff but at Club and County level – as I call it “proper rugby”, and before you start a discussion about it, now I don’t want to reconsider my opinion, it’s mine and that’s it.

It’s a team game and business could learn a lot from this understated team sport.

Anyway  my eldest plays as a back for Horsham U15’s and is this season (like the seasons before) is one of the top scorers, I  don’t tell you that to brag, although I do like to. He was born lucky, with his fathers speed and good looks. Only like my speed, the looks have started to slip southwards over the past couple of years.

So the point here, we purchased some new boots from Lovell Rugby, during last year and have given great service until we had a problem with a front stud breaking last weekend, call Lovell (after emailing them the digi pics of the problem) and immediately got a response from them agreeing, that yes they were faulty and yes they would be swopped out for a new pair.

Now two problems – one we needed another pair of boots, as Horsham have their last league match on Sunday against Lewes (and we will surely win) and there was some need to have some embroidery done on the new boots – modern kids eh, not happy to have a pair of boots they want it all.

So this is the story.

Emailed http://www.lovell-rugby.co.uk/ sent pics on Monday 28th Feb, and called, spoke with Ben and he confirmed (at 4.55pm) that indeed the old boots would be swopped out and he would do his best to get a move on.

Now there was a two fold problem, firstly delivery, and secondly the need for the embroidery work to be done, and with a promise that this would be sorted, I kind of paused for breath, and explained to my “star back” that he may not have his boots for Sunday against Lewes and training Wednesday may be an issue.

At Horsham, no train on Wednesday, probably no  chance to get picked on Sunday – for those Primary School teachers that want to make everyone equal, without competition welcome to the real world of Rugby where only those that put the effort in get the rewards…. Nearly broke into another rant then.

So there are two things that happened, I agreed to pay for a new pair of boots, knowing that a refund was coming and fair enough, Ben http://www.lovell-rugby.co.uk/ promised me to pull out all of the stops to get a pair of boots to me asap.

He obviously wants to see Lewes lose on Sunday as well.

Fast forward to today, Wednesday 2nd March at 10.55 and Royal Mail have just delivered a new pair of Embroidered Boots.

Bloody Amazing and a massive thank you.

Now why am I telling this story, well for a couple of reasons.

No matter how good your marketing is, not matter how good your Website and sales process works if your customer service is rubbish – your business is rubbish.

Good customer service makes a business stand out, and http://www.lovell-rugby.co.uk/ certainly stand out.

Just consider for a minute how your business deals with it’s customers, can your staff all make decisions, pull out stops and deliver if not your business is probably not a good as you think it is.

From a personal perspective where do you think I am going to go for our next kit purchase, of course http://www.lovell-rugby.co.uk/

On a final note, Ben – thanks and if Horsham U15’s do win against Lewes on Sunday it will be with your help, thanks. I would promise to drive down and kiss you, but that would probably not go down that well.

Thanks, it is appreciated from us both.

Richard Smith – Franchise Marketing and Business Development Expert at therichardsmith.com

Richard

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