We all use different service providers for different things. The person who mows your lawn is not going to be the person who cuts your hair!
Every service provider you come into contact with you create some type of relationship with them. Whether it’s a bad experience or a good one – a relationship is still developed.
So when you find someone who provides a service you are happy with, and you create a great relationship with them, should you hold on to it for dear life.
Recently I experienced something which made me wonder where a persons loyalty to a service provider should lie. For years I have used the same hairdresser. She is lovely – really friendly, chatty and most of all I like the way she does my hair. She has moved salons a few times and each time I have moved with her. But now she is not at a salon, going away on holiday for 3 weeks and I have no-one to do my hair – What do I do?
[Tweet “Does remaining loyal to your service provider get you better service?”]
You see if I had stayed with the original hair salon she was with, and NOT moved with her personally from salon to salon, then I would be able to get my hair done any day or time I liked – because they would have someone else who could facilitate me. Someone who I would have grown to love just the same way and who would have done just a good a job.
We all get attached to people and think that no other person can do the same job. But if the company you are using is hiring them, then the chances are ALL of their staff are of the same quality. They all work to the same standards, they all follow the same systems and they are all managed by the same people.
So what makes you loyal to the same service provider?
Reliability
When you want something done, you want to know that someone can be there to do it. Does that mean it might not be the same person – it sure does! But does that really matter? Today getting my hair done was important to me (in fact I might have considered letting the gardener do it if we had one!) and if I had stuck with that company I would be sitting in the salon now getting my much needed highlights!
Quality of Service
We all want and need a quality of service. We want someone who can guarantee us that. So a company with policies, procedures and standards can make sure you get all that. I know that the company I started off with has an amazing training programme for their staff. Are they one of the most expensive salons in Ireland? Yes! But what that means to me is that they train their staff well and pay them well – which equals happy and more productive staff.
Customer Service
Service with a smile is a must for me. I want someone who is happy doing what they are doing. I don’t want a miserable hair dresser who doesn’t want to be there and begrudges cutting my hair on a Saturday. I want to know I have someone I can complain to if I am not happy. I don’t want to have to have that awkward conversation with that person – I want to tell the company and let them resolve it for me.
So when you think about choosing a company to be your service provider make sure that they can offer you everything you need, but most importantly that they can do it ALL of the time you need – no matter who has to deliver that service from within their company.
