Recently I had a meeting with an advertising professional. She asked me the following question, "What is currently your most effective form of advertising?" I said, "That's easy; we do a great job." She chuckled; I did not. I said, "I'm serious; that's the best advertising we do." She was surprised by my answer and then I followed up with, "And the second best way we market is we make sure our clients are happy and if they aren't, we make them happy." And then I went on to explain how I felt too many companies don't do a great job and don't follow up either and the best way to grow a business is to do a great job and keep your existing clients happy; this way you don't have to do a whole lot of marketing. How can anyone argue with that? Seriously, how can they? Let me share three recent experiences with you to prove my point.

1.I hired a professional to help train my sales team how to sell better. The gentleman was very nice, but challenged from a technological perspective, started most of the sessions we had late and had enough challenges with dropped calls and bad connections to frustrate even the most patient person in the world. (By the way, I am NOT patient.) This went on for weeks. We get on the session online, it starts late, we have technological difficulties, everyone gets frustrated, we communicate our frustrations, the trainer seems indifferent, nothing changes and we go on. Finally, after a month of this nonsense, I could not take any more and set up a conference call with the gentleman we hired to do the training. He didn't listen to what we were saying. We told him very clearly: we loved his training, when we could hear it, but half the time there were issues preventing us from taking in the lesson correctly. At the end of the call, he, sensing that he could just keep asking questions so we would go away, I told him to forget it, he wins. He wins in the short term, but loses in the long term. I am a sales trainer, folks, but this guy is smarter than me, when it comes to sales. I wanted his help. However, his customer service is so horrible I will not only never work with him again, I will also never refer him to anyone either. He has the hard part figured out-he's a great salesman; however, his customer service stinks and I don't spend money with companies who don't make issues right. All the marketing in the world, both sophisticated and simple, isn't going to help him.

Smart companies do a great job and make sure their clients are happy and if they aren't, they make them happy.

2.I needed my daughter's Honda serviced. Just a simple oil change and tire rotation, no big deal, right? Wrong! I called the dealership where we bought the car. After navigating through what has to be the most convoluted voice mail system I have ever been on in my life, I got to the voice mail of the service writer. I left him a message on a Friday at lunch. Monday, after not getting a call back, I called again. Persistent and curious as to how a seemingly-successful Honda dealership could not have their phones answered, I tried again Tuesday. This time I got the service writer, told him my name, asked if there were problems with their office wondering why I didn't get a call back. His response was a terse, "What do you need?" I politely thanked him for his time and called a Honda dealership 30 minutes from my home and after 45 seconds had an appointment set up. Next time I need a Honda, and I have a bunch of them in our fleet at Grunder Landscaping Co., I'll drive 30 minutes instead of 5 to do business with someone who does a good job and takes care of the customer when they aren't happy. No amount of marketing is going to help the car dealership with bad service.

Smart Companies do a great job and make sure their clients are happy and if they aren't, they make them happy.

3.Finally, my washer, dryer, and dishwasher. Not sure what's going on at our house, but in one week, they all went down; well, the washer was okay, but after 15 years, that's pushing it anymore, so we just decided to get a new pair. Not wanting to get involved with the big chain stores, I went to the private distributor that furnished all the stuff in our new home when we built it. I did some quick price checking and even though they were a little more, I thought it would be worth it. I was willing to pay more to get good service. My wife and I had to set up an appointment just to meet with them. That was upsetting to Lisa, but to me, I thought, "cool, business must be good." It seemed they had an approach and I respect and like anyone who has an approach. I should have just gone to Lowe's, folks. When we entered the place, it smelled like they hadn't gotten the notice that smoking in a public place is against the law in the State of Ohio. The salesman, George, was polite and immediately told me "how tough business had been and how they were hanging in there." Feeling for him, I shared in his misery; however, after watching him and listening to him for the next 30 minutes, no wonder this company is struggling. He was good at talking and talking and talking. Finally I asked him what dishwasher was the best at cleaning dishes and he pointed to a KitchenAid model; I looked it up on my iPhone and quickly said we'd take it. He was surprised and kept telling me about the dishwasher. Folks, when someone says, "I'll take it," stop selling. Now for the washer and dryer. There were over 20 different types and he starts up again describing each one. My wife looks at me like our lives were literally wasting away and I said, pointing to my phone, "Do you have this one here?" He says, "Oh yeah, that's the top-rated one, so you like that one?" "Yes," I said; he shows it to me; I see the price is close to what it can be bought for from the competition and I say, "We'll take it." Shocked, he laughs and says, "Well, let me tell you more about it." I said, "Don't; just write it up; I know it's good and we have a soccer game to get to." What went on next was just plain silly. It took another 30 minutes to pay for the thing; he had to keep going back to his office to write up the order on his computer and as I watched him, my wife, the kindergarten schoolteacher says, "Why don't they have laptops or iPads; this is silly; what are we doing here?. We came here to save time and not get aggravated." Well, that wasn't going to happen. We requested the appliances get delivered after 4, which he said he would do. I stressed that was the only way this would work. The day the new stuff was to get delivered; they called me, even though I told them to call my wife, and said they would be there between 12 and 2. I was mad, "I specifically told George after 4." She replied, and I can't make this up, "I know; however, I just thought I would try." We got the new dishwasher, it works great, and the new washer and dryer are a big hit for all of us, even me, to be blunt. Still haven't heard a word from George to see if we're happy. Or even to ask if any of my friends, family, or neighbors need new things in their house. Baffling, to say the least. Next time, I'll go to Lowes or buy the thing online to save time and aggravation.

Smart Companies do a great job and make sure their clients are happy and if they aren't, they make them happy.

I hope you are laughing at some of these experiences; this is just what has happened in the last month. I see stuff like this all the time, folks. And, I'm going to tell you, I'm glad for most of it, for two reasons. Number one, they are great stories for a professional speaker like myself to share, and two, they enable a little landscaping company like the one I run to stand out in a sea of sameness. I frequently hear how impressed people are with the service my team of 45 at Grunder Landscaping Co. delivers. I am always glad to hear that; it's good service that makes my endeavor successful. We do make sure our clients are happy and if they aren't, we try like heck to make them happy. It works. In fact, it works so well, we don't have to market much.

Do great work and follow up and you won't have to market much either. It's a wonderful thing; try it.