At our second company meeting of 2003 in early September, ITresources arranged for a very special guest speaker. Her name is Mary-Ellen Drummond, and she is a renowned expert on the topic of customer service.

Ms. Drummond captivated her audience by presenting the concepts of Creating Customer Service Excellence. She has lectured worldwide and has been the featured speaker at and advisor to a number of Fortune 1000 companies. She has coached CEO’s and Gold Medal Olympians, as well as evaluating presidential debates.

Enlisting the expertise of this caliber of speaker confirms how important customer service is to ITresources. Gary Gray, the company’s President and CEO, says. ‘This is a very important topic that I believe is crucial to our continued success.’

Ms. Drummond’s presentation was especially timely for ITresources’ staff as the company begins its second decade of successfully providing a broad range of IT services to an increasing number of clients.

Mary-Ellen Drummond gave the ITresources’ staff some memorable insights into what differentiates us in the eyes of the customer.

One of her first remarks was that it takes 33 seconds for a person to make an indelible impression on someone. During that time if the person is a potential customer, he or she is deciding whether or not to buy from you. Given that short span of time to make a positive impression, the keys to being successful are: having a positive attitude, being a good communicator, taking the first step by saying hello, making eye contact and smiling at the other person.

Fitting right in with ITresources’ 2003 slogan, Mary-Ellen recommended that you ‘empower yourself to go above and beyond your job description.’

Here are some of Mary-Ellen’s ideas on how to WOW! your customers:

	Raise the bar; kick it up a notch.
	Never make the customer wrong.
	Take care of it yourself, don’t delegate.
	Give more than is expected.
	Create a signature so that your customers will remember you.
	Add humor to the conversation and be able to laugh at yourself.
	Remember that change for your customers is never easy, so don’t intimidate.
	The little things can make a huge difference.
	Make full use of your listening skills, be flexible and say thank you.
	Make your customer feel important and valued, show your appreciation.

Mary-Ellen Drummond’s Creating Customer Service Excellence gave everyone at ITresources some valuable reminders about how we can make a difference no matter who our customers are – internal or external, existing or prospective. The staff left the meeting ready to put these tips to immediate use!