This past weekend, I saw a televised story on the Today show about Amazon.com‘s largest fufillment center, located in Arizona. As you can imagine, it’s as amazing as Santa’s Workshop and this time of year it’s busier than ever!
The warehouse space is 1.2 million square feet, the size of 28 football fields, and although it is almost fully automated, the machinery is supplemented by hundreds of employees who pull products and perform other functions that still need that human touch. The company will be hiring 50,000 seasonal workers across the U.S. to meet customer demand.
I was very suprised to learn that shipments intended to be given as presents are hand wrapped by Amazon.com employees. Dave Clark, Amazon’s Vice President of Global Customer Fulfillment was quoted as saying, “The holiday is about gifts. This is something that they bought with care for another person. You know a machine-wrapped gift from a human-wrapped gift. It’s not the same.”
It’s that kind of mentality that launches a company ahead of its competitors, retaining that personal touch when it matters most. If a giant like Amazon.com can keep a human “hands on” approach for certain tasks, the rest of us certainly can as well.
Teltek has a great practice for customer service that is overlooked by some other companies. A real live person answers each and every call during regular business hours. While many companies rely on auto-attendant and answering services, we have chosen to take calls the old fashioned way, even though we sell phone systems and accessories that will automate that task for you!
While an automated system is a necessary and effective communications tool for some businesses, Teltek believes that personally addressing customer questions and concerns is a smart way to do business and stay connected to our customers.
Bobby, our Service Coordinator, is the primary person answering those calls, but four more Teltek team members (including Girl On Wire!) back him up, so if he is addressing a customer concern, your call will still be answered by a friendly and helpful human being.
The end of the year is a great time to look back on what your company’s strengths and weaknesses are and how you can improve for the ahead. In this era of technology, you may wish to review your practices and see if any of them could be made a little more personal.
Does your business have a personal touch that sets you apart from others? Write in and tell us about it!