BROADCASTS.com

b"

My first executive marketing role wasn\\u2019t about marketing! At the age of 27, I was chosen to become the first Customer Service Manager and a board member.

No one in that water systems company understood what I was going to do\\u2014and who needed a customer service manager when professional technicians went to fix whatever was needed when a customer complained?

To tell you the truth, I didn\\u2019t know exactly what this job meant, either. All I knew was that it was a strategic decision; the sales department said that the reason for not meeting their sales goals was a lack of good customer service.

I started by following one rule: to never leave a customer unsatisfied. I talked with each customer who needed a service. Mainly, I listened to them very carefully. The next step was to build a team of service providers who listened to customers and found the solution that would make them happy.

The next step was to build a new team of technicians that love to give good service. I did something else, too. I decided that I didn\\u2019t want to earn money from customer service itself, so all the payments went directly to the technicians.

Within 6 months, customer service went from being the biggest obstacle for closing a sale to the biggest driver for selling. Our customers' satisfaction skyrocketed\\u2026and so did the sales.

It was probably the most effective marketing campaign that I ran in my more than 30 years as a marketing director.

When I asked Warren Coughlin, one of my recent guests on the REACH OR MISS Podcast, for his best advice for entrepreneurs, he said, \\u201cI always think it's \\u2018to serve\\u2019! My definition of sales is professionally helping people solve problems, making it a kind of an honorable activity.

\\u201cIf you have a service focus for your customers, like always wanting to help them, you're going to have long client and customer relationships.\\u201d

This wasn\\u2019t the first time we heard successful entrepreneurs talking about 'serving your customers.'

Josh Elledge from Up My Influence and SavingAngel told his story about it:

\\u201cWhen I started as an owner of a small-town newspaper, I was so uncomfortable to sell; I was so scared, so I ended up failing miserably. And after that, for the next five years, I did sales and marketing for a network of law firms and had to sell every day for a commission-based salary. I was very miserable, and then, I suddenly realized that it\\u2019s not about convincing people to buy; it\\u2019s about listening to people's needs and finding how I can help them. The minute I understood that, I started to enjoy my connection with my clients and started to succeed dramatically. I found the win-win formula.\\u201d

Bob Burg, author of the \\u201cGo-Giver,\\u201d said that \\u201cshifting your business context from getting \\u2013 to give, is the most financially profitable.\\u201d

In today\\u2019s podcast episode, I share some of the most inspiring and educational stories of successful entrepreneurs who won their success by serving their customers best.

The first story is about Jeremy Parker from Swag.com, who told me, \\u201cI\\u2019m never satisfied in terms of customer success. We should go above and beyond to make our customers\\u2019 experience great.\\u201d

Jeremy Parker is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and serial entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Swag.com, the best place for companies to buy quality promotional products that they\\u2019ll actually want to keep.

They work with 5,000+ companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and TikTok. They are #218 on the 2020 Inc 500 (fastest-growing companies in the US). Also, CrainsNY named Jeremy one of the 40 Under 40.

Jeremy\\u2019s career and story

• I\\u2019m actually a filmmaker. I even won the Audience Award at the 2006 Vail Film..."