Yesterday I spent the day with four movers, two medium size trucks and 8 hours of “Where does this go?”  It was the most fun I don’t ever want to do again!    I was only moving 1.4 miles away and used a local mover, “Tony the Mover”.  I can’t deny for a second I was a little worried – no major moving company, just a local guy, but here’s where Tony puts everyone I’ve ever met in the moving business to shame.

1) His crew was terrific – great personalities, careful with loading and if they had a question they asked.   In the end everything was delivered to the right room, saving time later on.

2) They showed up exactly when they said they would and finished right on time.

3) We had a major crisis with an armoire that wouldn’t make it up the stairs.  Rather than give up, they called Tony himself.  He was on another job, 12 miles on the other side of town and dropped what he was doing to get over here and help.  When we determined that the piece would have to be taken apart slightly to get up the stairs he offered to have his guys come back the next day.  He was not going to give up and refused to just leave us hanging without a solution.

So, I started to think about the incredible service from Tony the Mover and his crew as it applies to our industry.  You’ve got one goal with every client – to exceed expectations.   It’s really that simple – everything you do in providing great service, great images, designing a great album all boils down to this one fact: 

If you exceed your client’s expectations the doors for future business directly from them or from referrals will continue to come your way.

It’s Customer Service 101 and the only regret I have with Tony the Mover is that he’s local!  Sure wish he’d been around for some of the bigger cross country moves in my life – even better, I wish he’d train the slugs at AmeriCarrier in California!