Service: Part Two

After touring two colleges with my daughter, we drive up to our final school of the day. Interesting. It had a guard gate. Security. The guard was friendly and sent us to the building to start our tour.

We were asked to sit and wait for our guide. Soon, an attractive youthful lady sat down with us. She had done her homework. She knew my daughter's name and interests. She asked questions to learn what was most important, they had a few laughs. Then we toured their facility. Instead of staring at buildings, we entered them and took in the atmosphere, we learned about what the school's mission was. The guide focused only on us, we were the only people she was with.

Afterward, we sat down and the guide explained the options, the tuition, the scholarships and asked our shirt sizes. Soon she returned with tee shirts in the school's colors and with its logo.

This was not an efficient tour. The guide spent time with us one on one. She worked through her lunch time. When we left, we felt uplifted and soon (within 30 minutes) we had received a follow-up email thanking us and promising more information to be sent. Later the guide followed up with my daughter's high school to confirm records were being sent. All this took time.

You probably expect to hear that we chose that college (no decision made yet) or that this institution was the most expensive (it was less costly than the other two we saw). Or that it was in a beautiful setting (it was urban, hence the guard gate).

But the service was tremendous, it was personal, it was not perfect, but the customer (my daughter) felt taken care of. Sometimes that is all it takes to succeed, to make a sale of any kind. But it was not efficient or cheap, it cost time and care.

Barry LaBov
LaBov & Beyond
www.labov.com