'People forget how fast you did a job-but they remember how well you did it...' Howard Newton.

I saw this quotation and it made me think. It's absolutely right of course and any tradesman or service provider who values repeat or referral business must make sure that the work they carry out is of absolutely top quality if they hope to earn a referral or further business from that customer.

An adequate job is sufficient only to get paid but in these days of tight margins and increased competition no business should accept losing a customer through laziness or lack of attention to detail.

we should all be aiming for at least a referral or the knowledge that should our customer ever require services from a company such as our own, that they would make us their first port of call.

Remember that while a customer having been totally satisfied with a job completed by us may tell 3 other people, if they are not satisfied they are likely to tell between 7 and 9!!

It is everyone's job within our company to ensure that our customers receive the best possible experience from their dealings with us, nobody should believe that their actions don't matter!!

Never simply leave a job assuming your customer is happy, fluffing your feathers and feeling triumphant and thinking 'I did a great job there'. Always ask the customer what they thought, after all, they are the ones paying your wages. Negative feedback may be uncomfortable but if embraced, dealt with and learned from can make the difference between a good company and a great company, after all it's impossible to get everything right all of the time!

Even when a job hasn't gone entirely smoothly, Authorized Access seeks customer testimonials and transparently displays them alongside others from jobs that went like a dream. This we believe gives our customers, old and new, a balanced view of what they can expect from us. Let's face it when all you hear or see in testimonials is 'glowing reports', then one begins to doubt the authenticity of the whole thing.

A great way to gather and display testimonials from customers is to us the 'Best Of' response cards, which really are for use 'any time anywhere' and by returning them to the Best Of Bury have them posted onto their web site, where anyone searching for a supplier of our products or services can browse at their leisure.

To see what our customers think of Authorized Access go to http://tiny.cc/y41v4