Good customer service seems to be dead.  The kind of customer service that when everything is said and done, you (the customer) feel great about the situation and the company you’re dealing with.  How many companies do you know that give this type of service?  A few? 1?  None?

That’s not how it used to be.  Brian and I have conversed many times about the state of customer service.  Usually with cursing and gnashing of teeth over some experience we’ve had.  When it’s all boiled down, it usually comes down to communication, assumptions, and willingness to please the customer.  Businesses 30 years ago cared about customer service.  They wanted customers to be happy with them and cared about word of mouth.  They took care of people that showed loyalty to their business.  Now we have multi-national corporations that are more concerned with numbers, survey ratings, and profits.  Their ’support’ personnel don’t have the ability or the willingness to help customers in any worthwhile capacity.  They don’t know their customers, and really don’t care about them.

The information technology industry is also plagued with companies that have no concept of service, no concept on how to estimate or forecast cost and time.  During typical projects deadlines slide by, estimates skyrocket – and customers goodwill towards IT slides into the crapper.  Communications are almost always at the root of this problem.  Assumptions are made on both sides, requirements aren’t completely hammered out.

All this service talk was a big part of the reason to start Outer Spice Web Co.- we wanted to ‘bring service back’.  We understand what good service means, and want to make sure our clients feel great about their project all the way through.  Words are great, but here’s how we’ll back that up:

How do you want to communicate?

We’ll ask you when you want to communicate and how.  We’ll be available to go over details, talk about requirements or discuss the Colts secondary any time you want.

Reports/Research

You didn’t ask for it, but we’re giving it to you anyway.  With your proposal, we’ll include a short report about your local industries presence on the web.  We aren’t a market research shop, but we’ll give you some basic information from a different pair of eyes.  Hopefully it will do you some good, but it’s also going to help us understand your industry and how your new website or application will fit in and compete.

Proposal/Requirements definition

We know it’s kind of a crazy time to be spending lots of money on web stuff.  We’re going to spell out a few different tiers of work we can do for you with different prices and levels of support.  You’ll know what we’re going to do, and when.  You choose what you want.

Contract

Well, this is the big day.  It’s time to formally bind ourselves in contract.  It’s going to be a happy day though – you’ll know what you’re getting, and we’ll know what we’ve got to do.

beta

Before we kick you off, we’ll give you a chance to check out your product and kick the tires.  We want you to use the product in a normal way to make sure everything is ironed out the way you want.

Completion review

When the dust is settled, we’ve wiped down your website and put a bow around it – we want to meet with you and make sure it’s how we both dreamed it would be.  We’re going to make sure you’re happy.

Post project support/follow ups

We aren’t just going to bail after you’ve got your shiny new website or application.  We want to hear about your thoughts on your project after its had a chance to sink into the internets.  We’ll go over what you like, what you’d change, and how awesome the movie Zombieland will be.
So you get the idea.  We’re committed to service.  :)