There Are No Traffic Jams On The Extra Mile

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“There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” – Zig Ziglar

According to Business Insider, about 543,000 new businesses get started each month in the United States. Competition is rough especially for freelance businesses such as auto repair shops, beauty salons, and dry cleaners. To get ahead from the bunch of other businesses, customer satisfaction is a time-tested device. However, it’s not enough to be customer-focused; “going the extra mile” is what it takes to earn people’s trust and loyalty, according to business experts.

Marketing consultant Owen Morris describes the 3 layers of customer-satisfaction as: (1) the type of product/brand, (2) range of advice/information/services/facilities, (3) how customers are made to feel about the service they receive. If the staff could exceed these expectations and surprise their customers positively, customer satisfaction takes one step higher into “customer-bonding”.

Morris remarks that a closer bond with customers makes it “undesirable and costly” for them to switch to another supplier. In order to create a bond, he suggested doing what most staff are not willing to do: offering credit facilities, customizing certain services, holding information about customers, sending communications regularly about new services, becoming friendly in the local community, and using technology distinctively to reach certain customers.

English writer and dramatist Douglas Adams was quoted for saying, “To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.” No one can survive the extra mile without it. In the words of Jean Giraudoux: “The secret to success is sincerity.”