Quality service is the most essential element in any business. For example, you probably go to your favorite restaurant not only because the food is good but because you enjoy the service …they make you feel “special.”

I recently had breakfast at one of my favorite restaurants, the Breakfast Klub, here in Houston. While the food is always good, what makes this place stand out even more is their customer service. Their service stood out so much, I am telling you about them right now. Isn’t it interesting the impact real service can make?  Whenever I go there the staff greets me with, “Hello, good to see you again,” and as I’m leaving, “We will see you tomorrow.” How do they know I will be back tomorrow?  However, on this particular day they showed me a new level of service.

I ordered a cappuccino with my breakfast but it didn’t arrive with my meal. When the waiter came by to make sure everything was okay, I told him about the missing cappuccino. He then remembered, apologized, and brought it to me. What he did next though really amazed me. He brought back the money I had paid for the cappuccino. I thought to myself, “Wow, he didn’t have to do that.” I was still eating my breakfast and I kept thinking, “Now that is service.” I thought about the owner of the restaurant who, just like The Media Source, started his company with certain practices, principles and beliefs. I thought about what service is and what it means to the person who is getting it, and especially what it means to the person who is giving it.

This one small incident by the restaurant’s employee caused me to reevaluate what I believed to be true customer service. I wanted to know what more we could do at The Media Source so that our clients experienced the same level of service. Now mind you, The Media Source has been in the business of customer service for years and even though I may be a little bias, I believe we are very good at providing great customer service. However, even if you are a master you can never stop practicing.

Our definition of service is to not only give the person what they need, when they need it, but also to anticipate any other needs. That’s why our customer satisfaction rating is outstanding. However, we are not willing to settle for what we did right yesterday, or the day before. Our motto is: “Persistent, Personable and Media Savvy.” You may have seen it on our press material, or better yet you may have experienced it when interacting with our team. It is a challenging and never-ending journey because each client and each project brings its own requirements and definition of what outstanding service really is. At The Media Source we continually re-define customer service. Contact us, and experience service The Media Source Way.

The miniscule yet mighty ant is marvelous at teamwork and determination. Dedication to the welfare of the group over the welfare of the individual makes it possible for ants to do amazing things like cross bodies of water. This trait however is also a weakness. There are times when one ant will get off track and an entire group of them may end up walking in circles until death just because they so rigidly follow the leader.

Many companies use the same tactics as the ants. They employ an army of people and make sacrifice for the team an overriding criteria for all decisions. It’s no wonder they eventually find themselves moving in circles rather than moving forward. Many times when you compare one organization to the next you may see two different companies but often they are marching to the same beat. Innovation and uniqueness does not grow from sameness.

The difference with The Media Source is we create the beat for each of our clients. That way our efforts and results are always in step with the project at hand. Does your team provide excellent service? Do they go above and beyond the call of duty? Can they name three things that set your organization apart from the competition? Do they communicate the benefits of your service to your clients at every opportunity? Are they implementing the “10 Prime Ways” to promote your business? Most company only use about three of those. Are you actively testing the results?

There are ingrained habits in the world of marketing that are universally accepted even though their use goes back years and may not even be relevant anymore. There are processes that were designed for certain situations, but those situations may no longer exist. Blindly following the beat leads you to the same place as everyone else. You’ll get the same results they get. You’ll have the same costs that they have and you’ll be subjected to the same limitations they labor under. However, when you create the beat for your own march your project is truly innovative. The Media Source constantly monitors the environment and its business practices to ensure things are still relevant and that we aren’t following the leader just because that’s all we know how to do.

Unlike the ants, The Media Source doesn’t expect people to sacrifice themselves, but we do strongly engender teamwork so our clients can benefit from the artful blending of our people’s knowledge and skills. This delivers amazing results like having our client named Best Custom Home Builder of the Year by the National Association of Home Builders and another client getting on the New York Times Best Sellers list. As we let the very best in people shine so too is the very best in service brought to life. As the subtle nuances of skills blend together, so too do the subtle nuances of form and figure take shape. Teamwork helps catch the things that ought not to happen and improves on the things that can very best be achieved. There isn’t any substitute for teamwork and there isn’t any substitute for finding the right beat.

Today, more than ever, if your advertising does not strike with impact, it will make no lasting impression.  Picture this; a frumpy little old lady, who is no more than five feet tall walks into a fast food restaurant, slams her hand down on the counter and asks for more beef.  For most of us, we can’t remember what we had for dinner last night. However, this Wendy’s commercial that first aired on January 9, 1984 had everyone asking, “Where’s the beef?” The humorous ad which featured actress Clara Peller soon gave the catchy commercial a life of its own, as it quickly entered American pop culture and served to promote Wendy’s high quality, yet oddly squared hamburgers. In the 1984 United States Democratic Party primary, former Vice President Walter Mondale even used the phrase against his opponent, Congressman Gary Hart, when Mondale stated that Hart’s policies made him wonder, “Where’s the beef?”  Did you know Xerox is a company that consumers often misuse as a generic term for photocopying?  Do you remember Oscar Meyer’s first name?  It’s O-S-C-A-R…  Even Mickey likes it!  What about the Energizer bunny that keeps going and going and going or the Geico commercial where the man saves a lot on his car insurance. Can you hear me now?  Ohhh, the power of advertising.

Creating high quality, effective advertising campaigns for your business can be very time consuming and expensive.  Most companies look at television commercials as an advertising vehicle for “the other guys.”  The corporate giants.  The businesses with lots of disposable cash.  Video can place the viewer face to face with you and the facts, which allows for a better relationship.  Video has the ability to capture people’s attention in a positive way.  Because of the stamina associated with television advertising your business or product is immediately set apart as a business of authority and one that cares about professionalism.

Is it possible to take a couple of words and make them a house whole name or better yet create a global message for your business or service?   We at The Media Source say, YES!   The Media Source creates high quality video at affordable prices that can increase your company’s image greatly.  We can create advertising that will appeal to even the consumer with the itchiest remote-control fingers.  We combine sight and sound to spark viewers’ emotions and help them to identify with your product. If you need to make an impact with television commercials, streaming video, video presentation and training, event campaigns or lead generation commercials, The Media Source is your answer.  More and more businesses are turning to video to communicate their message.  The two major reasons: it’s effective and it communicates your message in compressed time.

Video allows businesses to cobble together ideas and concepts that other wise would be too oddly shaped, multilayered, and freighted with contradictions to fit between the covers of a book.  The evidence that advertising has the potential to voice your business is real – - not so much in the programming itself but the 30-second message in between.  Once you get your consumers attention you will forever be imbedded in their minds.

Are you making an impact?  Give The Media Source call at (713) 370-6857.

Just what can companies learn from “churn?” The term is often used to describe the customer revolving door in subscriber-based service models like cable TV and mobile phones. It could however, just as easily relate to a construction business that gets regular work from the same clients, time and time again.

A firm that has worked for a particular owner on a succession of projects, or one that has a stream of new work from the same  firms, would be wise to at least think a little bit about churn. That’s because, at its very root, churn is really all about knowing your customers and knowing when they are happy with your product or service, and when they are not.

Here’s a case in point. A large cable company decided to attack its churn rate using a customer-centric approach. The company first began a customer survey program that targeted customers a short while after their service was up and running. That way, they could gauge the customer’s satisfaction with the sales process and the installation, as well as their satisfaction with the product. What they discovered was that early and midterm customer satisfaction had the greatest effect on churn. But they also discovered that even though customers were more likely to switch providers in the 12 to 14 month range, they were actually making that decision around the ninth month into the contract.

The company put together a five question survey and started surveying customers at seven months into their subscriptions. The results showed the company where to focus its efforts in trying to keep customers who were most likely to switch providers.

Firms that have more than a “subscriber” level relationship with their clients have unique opportunities to discover clients that might be ready to churn. But many miss the boat. So while phone, mail or internet surveys may not fit, that doesn’t mean that some form of personal survey shouldn’t be used. Just because you played golf with a client yesterday, and they didn’t say anything about your company’s performance, doesn’t mean they don’t have an opinion about that.

For all companies, getting some insight into the list of clients who might “switch,” could just be a matter of regularly asking all clients how satisfied they are with your performance. If areas of dissatisfaction surface, then you can address those areas before the client makes the decision to find another provider or vendor.

There is a management axiom that says you should always delegate decision making to the lowest possible level. Lowest possible is the operative term since if the lowest possible person doesn’t have the skills, knowledge or experience to make the correct decision then it’s not a good idea to delegate decision making to them.

Allowing people to make decisions about their work is something that a lot of managers have a real problem with. Especially those that have never learned to release a little bit of control. Everyone in a company owns a little piece of the action. They know the details of the job because they do it everyday. They know the problems and they know the factors that affect their ability to perform the job. They are a wealth of information.

There are many levels of wisdom and it only takes the act of asking questions to make it available to you. The people who are doing the hands on work everyday have an immense amount of knowledge about what is really going on. They don’t hold the total picture, but their views, along with many others can help you to see reality through the lens of many…and that picture is one more vital part of what we come to know as the truth.