Taste testing

I had an amazing service experience last week.

A person was coming out to my house to quote me for an installation we want to have done.

At about five minutes to when she was about to arrive, she called to say that she was caught in a little bit of traffic with the rain and may be a couple of minutes late.

She then showed up just two minutes late and I was over the moon that she had called.

Her behaviour at our house was extremely professional, she asked great questions, made relevant suggestions and really knew her product. She was able to give us a very professional quote on the spot and told me she’d follow up with an email later that day which she did.

All in all – a fantastic service experience.

There’s only one thing. Our interactions ended on a slightly funny note. Instead of a professional work email she used a hotmail email account and at the bottom of the email it read: “Looking for a hot date? View photos of singles in your area!”

Now, given that she’d provided such great service up until that time, this wasn’t a huge issue for me – more of a giggle. But given that hotmail does this without you even seeing it, it’d be something I’d be upset about as a professional (and she was extremely professional!).

This is one reason it’s a great idea to test out your entire sales process on someone – and get their feedback. This lady was sensational, but that last little thing could leave a sour taste in someone’s mouth (especially someone who may not know that she didn’t put this tag line on her emails!) and she may not even know it’s happening.

How will you test yourself out today?

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27, If I Can do it Anyone Can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started her first business at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Now Kirsty does lots of fun things which you can read about here. Her favourite current projects are Elephant Property, a boutique property management agency, Baby Teresa, a baby clothing line that donates an outfit to a baby in need for each one they sell andReallySold, which helps real estate agents stop writing boring, uninteresting ads.