Is customer service important for bookkeepers?
Two years ago Knutsford Admin was founded offering secretarial services, general office admin and bookkeeping to businesses who need an extra hand in and around Knutsford, Cheshire. Especially useful to those business not yet ready or able to take on their own admin staff. Having experience of work with international, national, large and small businesses one common theme is paramount – excellent customer service is one of the key ingredients for success.
Within the bookkeeping and secretarial services industry customer service is a number one priority. When working with a business, accuracy and attention to detail are important, along with being human and understanding clients as individuals. This combination makes for excellent working relationships.
With the owner managed businesses I’ve worked with the excellent customer service comes directly from the owner – they make sure they know their trade inside out and as it is their business they know to treasure and value their customers. However businesses grow and employ staff and at this point it becomes not only the domain of the owner to offer good customer service. John Lewis are an example of a business with excellent staff training, excellent management and highly motivated staff who feel valued and an important part of the business, this is reflected in the customer service they give.
Although an extreme comparison the following examples are a good demonstration of good and bad customer service and infact gave me the idea of writing this particular blog.
The first was a marvellous opportunity to stay at Le Manoir aux Quatre Saisons; Raymond Blanc’s hotel, restaurant, and cookery school. Chatting to other attendees at the cookery class it turned out 3 of them were staff members who explained that Monsieur Le Blanc likes all his staff to experience eating in the restaurant, staying overnight and taking cookery classes so they themselves experience and understand the customer’s experience. It was very evident that all of the staff were impeccably trained and the customer service was first class.
In contrast one night in an independent hotel in the Lake Distrit did not demonstrate the same level of staff training. Passing by reception in the afternoon a senior receptionist was blatently telling off a junior receptionist for all to hear. It included the words ‘that’s not what guests expect’. The junior receptionist was very young and possibly quite naive, I had to wonder if the senior receptionist herself had had good training and if she had ever considered if the junior would know what guests would expect, perhaps he had never experienced being a guest. I picked up on an unhapy atmosphere in the hotel and won’t be returning. A bad example of customer service.
It has been very nice to receive complimentary customer service feedback from Knutsford Admin clients and certainly our ethos is all about understanding the client and interpreting how to help run their businesses smoothly and with a smile so they can concentrate on their businesses without getting bogged down with day to day admin.
