Business is a funny thing that has gone through a ton of transformations in my 33 years. I remember being a kid watching my grandfather (Papa) run his business in southern California and it seemed really easy, and it seemed like he always had money. The other side of that is that I was a kid so he obviously didn’t tell me when he was stressed out or when he was worried about money, etc.
It’s funny to think how he even managed to do anything; no cell phones, no internet, no Facebook…how did they manage? Well, it turns out business is still inherently the same; we just have more tools at our disposal and more information available at a faster clip. I hear people today (on social media sites) talking about how business today is so customer oriented (blah blah blah)…but it’s always been that way. I admit, it’s obviously more transparent today than it use to be but the art of business is still exactly the same.
Business is and always has been about managing: time, people, & money; as well as lead generation, efficiency, quality, and most importantly about “building relationships with people/ customers”. And this is what I am hearing every “expert” and “guru” talk about, customer relationships due to the ease a customer has of getting to you (the company, the business, the brand, the celebrity) via social media/ social networking sites; but that’s what my grandfather did way back when.
So I guess my opinion is this, customer service isn’t new, the avenues in which we conduct it are; but those change from decade to decade. I think the difference is actually transparency. Information is travelling faster and through more avenues than ever before. So understanding and adopting these new avenues is key to running a business effectively today. What do you think? No worries, let me know if I’ve got it wrong so I don’t run my own business in to the ground.
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