High Touch Service in a Touch Free World

We were young, hard-working, and barely keeping our business alive, and our mentor, the late Jacques de Beve kept saying "it's not the place, it's the people."  We had just taken over the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Hayward, California.  The entryway to our studio seemed to be a hotspot for the homeless and yet, the refrain continued.  

Translation:  You can blame the way your business looks and where it's located or you can develop your people and create great service.

So we looked past the aesthetics.  We turned our attention to our team, articulated the type of experience we wanted for our students, and 18 months after operating with two weeks of reserves for payroll, Arthur Murray Hayward was one of the top 10 locations in the world. 

Jacques de Beve informed us later that year that he renamed his "It's not the place, it's the People" meeting to "The Hayward Meeting."  

Are there other important factors?  Sure.  Your location, marketing, and product are of vital importance, but there isn't a location, a marketing campaign, or a product that can outperform bad customer service.  

Poor service accounted for over 63 Billion dollars in lost revenue - all before the pandemic. At that time, customer service was seen as a competitive advantage, a way to differentiate between you and your competitor.  

Today, customer service is no longer a competitive advantage.  It's essential for business survival. 

Customer service is a lot like dancing.  You can look the part while you're faking your way through it, or you can learn some choreography and move with confidence.