(Image: ThinkStock)

In the world of oxymorons—combinations of contradictory words like “cruel kindness” or “simple complexity”—customer service should be added to the list. In fact, it should top it! Because despite Corporate America’s continuing insistence that the customer comes first and the customer’s always right and the investment of billions of dollars in customer service departments, systems, initiatives and professionals, in most cases, we customers are getting served little more than frustration, aggravation, migraines and misery.

I finally accepted that I will almost never reach a human being when I call a company. I embraced the requirement of keying in all my information on the phone before I could talk to a person. I dutifully listen to the prompters and dutifully repeat the menu when what I need isn’t even mentioned on it. I gave up pressing “O” the minute I heard a machine, especially once they all but destroyed the option of bypassing the automated system. I went with the flow, calm, almost Zen-like.

But once I’ve done all that and waited the 8 or 13 or 35 minutes I’ve been told it would take to access a human (the alternative being to go online and let only my fingers do the talking), I lose it when that person says hello and then proceeds to ask me for virtually all of the information I keyed into my phone in the first place. This is not service, people. This is why so many people suffer strokes every minute.

Here are five other overly used business labels that don’t quite mean what they imply. If you don’t realize this already, you better ask somebody (or just read on…)!

• Company Retreat: If we’re in Bali or Barbados or the Bahamas at a lush spa where our long working days are buoyed by late partying nights, this label applies. But if we’re holed up in a local conference room for a few days with breaks only for sleep and bad buffet, it’s anything but. Note to HR planning teams: According to good ol’ Merriam-Webster’s, retreat means, “a place of privacy or safety; a period of group withdrawal for meditation or prayer.” Saying grace before a continental breakfast doesn’t count.
• Confidentiality Agreement: Whether you’re signing on as the personal assistant to a major celebrity or as an employee of a company with major privacy concerns, “agreement” is a stretch. Basically, this is a threat. Sign it or you won’t get the job; break it and they’ll sue you for all you’re worth. And they’ll most likely win.
• Strategic Plan: Creating a plan without having a strategy is like leaving on a long journey without a map. You may reach your destination, but it’ll probably take longer, cost more, and you’ll have to keep stopping along the way to get directions. In a business context, planning and strategy go hand-in-hand; if they don’t, any chance for real progress goes bye-bye.
• Performance Appraisal: Some folks (if you’re lucky) do this right. But most don’t. And, worst by far, some don’t do it at all. A performance appraisal should not be an indictment, a bully pulpit, a punishment, a drag—unless you’re really doing poorly. Nor should it be a love fest or a pity party. It should be an honest, balanced look at what you’ve done right, and what you must work on to move forward. Whether you’re self-appraising, or the subject of someone else’s evaluation, it should be done as objectively as possible, the goal being to become your best. Don’t settle for blanket statements; ask for specifics. Don’t expect to have your hand held through improvements; make a to-do list and go at it. And don’t have anything to say in response. It’s your life, your future: Own it.
• Salary Negotiation: Especially in this economy, companies are throwing out offers with brazen disregard for anything other than maximizing their own bottom lines, even if you are struggling to stay afloat. A negotiation is just that—and even when it’s not called that, you have every right to negotiate your salary, and you should. But asking for what you want in a perfect world is no better than your company low-balling you just because they can. You have to walk in prepared. Know what the market norm is for your role. Take into account the size and scope of your business and the amount of effort demanded of you relative to the general market for the position. Finally, don’t be indifferent to your company’s ability to pay you; if you’re really a team player, you have to be cognizant of company challenges as well as your own. But those challenges shouldn’t supersede what you believe is fair and deserved. Listen and be patient; the best negotiations may take time, but they result in mutually beneficial agreement. Aim for the win-win.

Comfort Cake Founder and CEO Amy Hilliard (Image: Courtesy of Subject)

This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR contributor Renita D. Young speaks with Amy Hilliard, the founder and CEO of The Comfort Cake Company, a Chicago-based major distributor of southern-style pound cakes. Hilliard’s cakes have been distributed nationally through both food-service and retail channels.

Prior to launching The Comfort Cake Company, Hilliard was an accomplished senior marketing executive with companies including Gillette, Pillsbury and L’Oreal. Since the venture was launched, the baked-goods company has served the Chicago Public Schools, United Airlines, Jewel Osco and Nordstrom’s, among other clients.

Today, Hilliard is the first African American ever elected to the board of directors of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade. The Comfort Cake Company has been featured by numerous media outlets, including The Home Shopping Network and CNN, as well as in magazines including Essence, Fortune and Black Enterprise. Hilliard stops by The Roundtable to share how she transitioned from marketing maven to entrepreneurial success.

Also, UBR Contributor Samantha Pass speaks with Kim Martinez, founder of Creative Kimistry, a customer service training program that helps businesses to deliver exceptional customer service in order to drive business growth.

Kim Martinez of Creative Kimistry (Image: Courtesy of Subject)

In addition, in my “Alfred’s Notepad” segment, I share some of the inspirational advice that has guided me in my business and professional career, including from business leaders including Black Enterprise Founder and Chairman Earl Graves Sr. and the late deal maker extraordinaire Reginald F. Lewis. I also invite the listeners of The Urban Business Roundtable to share the advice and words of wisdom that helped them to define their success. I’ll be sharing some of that wisdom on upcoming editions of The Urban Business Roundtable as well as future UBR Spotlight posts. If you have quotes or advice that help to guide your business decisions, feel free to share them below in the comments section of this post.

And finally, every week on UBR, you’ll get motivation and inspiration from author and entrepreneurial icon Farrah Gray, a weekly wrap-up of business news from USA Today business correspondent Charisse Jones, our Patient Investor Report from Ariel Investments and key economic intelligence for small business owners from our UBR economists Derrick Collins and Rasheed Carter.

If you have a question you want answered or a topic you want addressed on The Urban Business Roundtable, connect with me at BE Insider, the social media network for people who are serious about Black Enterprise. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.

Alfred Edmond Jr. is the senior VP/editor-at-large of Black Enterprise and the host of the Urban Business Roundtable, a weekly radio show, sponsored by Ariel Investments, airing CST Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. on WVON-AM 1690, the Talk of Chicago. You can also listen live online at WVON.com. Check back each week for UBR Spotlight, which features additional resources, advice and information from and about the topics, entrepreneurs and experts featured on the show.

Happy customers are good for business (Image: Thinkstock)

At its core, excellent customer service is really about meeting a consumer’s needs with a quality product and exceeding their service expectations in a memorable way. Today, these efforts are no longer optional; they’re imperative for business survival.

Billions are lost annually because unhappy patrons take their business elsewhere after a bad experience. Make sure your customers remember you for all the right reasons.

Four things you can do today:

1. Be a standout. What separates you from your competition? Identify and perfect the added value you deliver.

2. Engage the audience. Being attentive is where it starts. Constantly communicate to your clients not only what they mean to your business but also what your business means to them.

3. Hire properly. Those on your team must share your values (e.g., seeing the company flourish).

4. Stay consistent. Make sure everything, including the overall experience, maintains your standards—and is something people will want to return for.

Want to know more about taking care of your customers? Then attend Black Enterprise’s annual Entrepreneurs Conference, taking place May 22-25, 2011 in Atlanta Georgia. Visit blackenterprise.com/ec for more details. As an incentive BE is offering you a discount on early registration: Just enter code BEDG295 and receive $200 off.

Tennille M. Robinson is Senior Multimedia Content Producer for Small Business. You can follow her on Twitter at @TennilleSmBiz and send your business questions to smallbiz@blackenterprise.com.

Free samples. You are a new business and people don’t know who you are, so you have to get your brand out there someway, somehow, right? New customers and clients will want to know, “Why should I use you?” So be willing (when necessary) to offer pro bono work so they can see what it is that you do, so that they can use your services. But definitely be strategic as to who and how you use your freebie (or severely discounted) services/products in branding and marketing your company. Once you’ve given potential customers/clients a sampling of your offerings, they can then make a determination as to whether or not you are a company of choice for them.

Keep it consistent. It’s never a good look to wow a company or client the first time they use you, then the next time rolls around and your service/product is sub par. Make sure everything you offer your customers (think: overall experience) remains consistent—and something they’ll want to return for.

Be a standout. What separates you from your competition? “Remember, you’re always replaceable,” says Gatlin. “Someone can always go out and find a company that does the same things you do or offers the same products you offer.” You have to know what makes you a standout. At The Atlanta Go To Girl Gatlin says, “We have something called Express Milk where we help moms transitioning back into the workplace. We’ll go and pick up the pumped breast milk from them at work and take it to the nanny to give to the baby.”

Hire top talent. You want to make sure you have people on your team who have the same values as you. “If you allow employees who do not have the company’s best interest in mind to work within the organization, you are putting your clients, business and future in the wrong hands,” says Gatlin. Hire smart because great employees think (and profit) alike.

Be attentive. Constantly tell your employees and your clients what they mean to you. Because, as you know, without both you’re done. Connecting with your employees as well as customers work hand-in-hand. Gatlin notes the obvious: “If you have unhappy employees, you’re generally going to have unhappy clients.”

Read more on small businesses and entrepreneurship:

• Three passion-to-profit myths debunked
• How to avoid networking deal-breakers
• What you can learn from… Soulja Boy’s social media strategy

Tell us what you think. What other advice/tips from your business experience can you offer someone in a different field or industry that has universal relevance?

Felicia Joy of Ms. CEO Inc. has a ready answer for those seeking her firm's services for little or no pay.

One of the challenges facing many black small business owners, and especially new and less experienced entrepreneurs, is tradition of the hookup: the expectation that black entrepreneurs will give away their products and services for free—or “hook a brother/sista/cousin/etc. up”—because the patron is a friend or relative, and often just because both the business owner and the would-be patron are black. For years, I’ve railed against those who constantly expect to be hooked up, telling them that they are doing a disservice to black entrepreneurs, creating a drag on the growth and profitability of small black-owned businesses, and putting a damper on the economic vitality of black communities. (For more, check out my post, “Why I Hate The Hook-Up.”) On this week’s edition of The Urban Business Roundtable, the radio show I host for WVON-AM Chicago, I stressed that getting consumers to stop looking for a hook-up is only part of the solution; business owners need stop handing them out.

Felicia Joy, CEO of Ms. CEO Inc. and Joy Group International and host of The Ms. CEO Show, a weekly talk radio program, has dealt with more than her share of would-be clients seeking a hookup.

“People (especially potential clients for entrepreneurship coaching) often ask me to work for very little pay, or they try asking me questions to get valuable information and insights without paying for them,” says Joy. “I used to try to work with people, thinking that it was a money issue, but I have come to understand that more often it’s a mentality issue.

“My response now is, ‘I understand where you are coming from but my rate is firmly X per hour. When do you think you’ll have that amount?’,” Joy adds. “If the person is unwilling to commit to a time frame,  I know they’re not serious and I tell them to call me when they’re ready; then I move on and forget it. This has also challenged me to begin developing more products (books and CDs) that I can sell at a $25 or less price point—and reach more people—rather than shortchanging and burning out myself.”

How often do people expect you, as a business owner, to hook them up? Is it a rare event, a common but minor annoyance, or a real drag on the growth and profit-potential of your business? Take our poll and share your experience on this subject, and as well as your take on the issue and how you deal with it.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE OUR POLL

I suffer from severe food allergies, so traveling is always a challenge for me. I prefer to travel by car, but this time around, a plane was the only way to get to my destination. Since air is re-circulated on a plane, it is dangerous (not to mention potentially deadly) for me to be around certain foods.

In the past, I’ve asked for–and received–accommodations, such as an in-flight announcement, asking passengers to refrain from eating potentially life-threatening foods (nuts and shellfish) during their flight. But this time, when I made the flight attendant aware of my special needs and asked for an announcement, he vehemently refused.

I let him know that my request had been granted on this particular airline before without a problem and that this was no mere preference–my health was at stake.

Still denied.

Needless to say, my husband and I were incensed. I was annoyed by the fact that I not only had to sit through a three-hour flight fearing for my safety, but that we’d have to cancel our return flight with this airline and book it with another. (In case you’re wondering, we booked our new flight with AirTran Airways. They accommodated me without hesitation. I  recommend AirTran to anyone with a situation similar to mine.)

Changing our flight arrangements meant a $300 cancellation fee and $430 for the new flight. We would also have to pay more than $400 for the flight my husband and I wouldn’t even be on. My mission:  to get a full refund for that flight. The flight and hotel were booked through Orbitz, so handling the complaint was a bit tricky. Here’s how to navigate the abyss of airline customer service departments:

Make the call. Your first step is to call–not write–about your complaint. This ensures faster service. In my case, our first communication was with Orbitz, who then contacted the airline’s customer service and explained the situation. When you call, explain why you’re dissatisfied and tell the representative how you want the situation to be handled. For example, if you want a refund, ask for it.

Don’t take no for an answer. At first, our request was denied by the airline. If this happens to you, ask the representative to transfer you to a manager. Often, the manager is able to do things a representative is not authorized to. Once I spoke to a manager, I was able to get the $300 cancellation fee waived. I was also offered two free tickets on any flight with the same airline. Free tickets are great but it wasn’t solving the problem. One lesson to take away from this: Don’t accept a resolution if it doesn’t directly address your complaint. We accepted the fee waiver but declined the free tickets. We wanted a full refund.

Follow up. After my husband and I returned home from our honeymoon, I went to the offending airline’s Website and found an e-mail address for their customer complaint department. I sent an e-mail detailing my experience on the flight and asked for a refund for the full value of the tickets for the flight we couldn’t take. Even though we had already complained via phone and received a waiver for the cancellation fee, I wanted to let them know I meant business. Persistence is key.

Celebrate. Success! About three days letter, I received an e-mail saying that the full refund had been granted. And about three days after that, my husband’s credit card had been credited for the full amount. Be persistent and stick to your guns. You just might get what you asked for.

Sheiresa Ngo is the Consumer Affairs editor at Black Enterprise.

“No one says ‘I’m going to start a business and mess it up,’ ” says Marcia Pledger, author of My Biggest Mistake and How I Fixed It: Lessons from the Entrepreneurial Front Lines (Orange Frazer Press Inc.; $19.95) “But you can go out of business as quickly as you went into business if you don’t take care of the basics.”

It’s hard enough to stay in business without the U.S.’s sluggish economy making it more difficult. Consider that in 2008 the U.S. government wrote off a record $2.1 billion from small business loan defaults, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Those remaining in or choosing to start businesses must be ever more diligent at avoiding preventable setbacks. BlackEnterprise.com diagnoses four common ailments in small business growth and our experts provide prescriptions for remedies to help them recover.

Ailment: The competition always out-prices your merchandise.
Prognosis: The targeted clientele is too broad.

Prescription: Develop a well-established product or service, market to a niche customer, and communicate to that customer the unique qualities of your product or service. Small business owners can’t compete on price points with large, national brands, but they can compete when it relates to value, says Jerome Edmondson, president of the Entrepreneur Development Network, a small business incubator. Convince your customers that even though your prices might be higher, your product or service provides a better benefit and thus a better bargain.

Ailment: Your company is expanding too quickly.
Prognosis: The owner lacks knowledge about how to grow and profit simultaneously.

Prescription: Now that you’ve created a well-established brand, do your homework before you try to take it to the next level. Take time to understand the industry, your product, and your customer. Pledger recalls a story about a pretzel company owner who, in an effort to expand her business, took a large order from a grocery store chain but was not prepared for the challenge. Her distributor ran out of packaging, she did not know how she would deliver the product to the store, and she lost money when the pretzels didn’t sell.

“She should have done some research to find out what the grocery industry entails,” says Pledger. If the owner had sought advice from a larger company that sold a similar product, she might have learned that the profit margin for her specialty product was very thin.

Ailment: You company lacks customers.
Prognosis: The company is inconsistent with business practices.

Prescription: A business owner should be selling, delivering on what the company sold, and developing the product all at the same time, Pledger says. If a business spends all of its resources on one client then it is not only neglecting potential clients, but also the day-to-day responsibilities that help build their brand.

A business must consistently work on developing every area of the business including accounting, marketing, and employee relations so that it can maintain the quality of its products or services. One way to accomplish that is to meet or exceed the expectations of returning customers. Lowering the standards of a product or service after the product launch is one way to disappoint returning customers and keep them from coming back.

Ailment: Contracts and critical assignments are not fulfilled.
Prognosis: The owner is trying to do too much on his own.

Prescription: Hire expert employees and learn to say no to contracts or business propositions that do not match your company’s mission. Small business owners sometimes don’t trust their employees enough because they think no one knows better than they do what is best for their business. “You can not grow and do it all [on your own],” Pledger says.

Also, don’t try to cut corners when it comes to professional help, Pledger says. The difference between a bookkeeper and a certified public accountant will make a world of difference come tax time. Hire competent people that understand your industry. Once you put the right people in place you have to trust them and know when to let them do their jobs.

Also, take time off and get away from your business once in a while. Otherwise you will begin to lose your enthusiasm, which will affect your customers and employees. “Entrepreneurs very rarely say no because they are always chasing the next dollar,” says Edmondson. “Sometimes the next dollar can be [found by] getting rest and relaxation.”

Resources

Small Business Administration – Small Business Training Network

U.S. Chamber of Commerce – Small Business Library

SCORE -Counselors to America’s Small Business

Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship

The Kauffman Foundation of Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship.org