Customer Service

Customer service is one of those things that can make or break a business.

Since we have been yachting in the San Juan Islands we have experienced the good and the bad of customer service. Based on those experience with customer service we have learned the places that we will come back to and the places we will not. As a business owner, I take that seriously and attempt to give my customers a 5 star experience.

Here is a comparison to 2 resorts that we have visited on the Yacht this season:

Roche Harbor San Juan Island: At Roche Harbor they treat you like royalty. When you arrive at the dock their dock crew greets you, helps catch your lines and pulls you into the slip. Before they are done greeting you they make sure you have power hooked up (if you need it), and that you have everything you need to enjoy the resort. If you are arriving on a low end 20ft boat, or a 150ft superyacht, it appears that they treat everyone like royalty.

Rosario Resort Orcas Island: The harbormaster knows nothing about customer service, and the dock staff is so afraid of him that they cannot help the guests. When we arrived at Rosario Resort within about 5 minutes of our arrival the harbor master comes steaming down the dock to point out how we don’t know what we are doing with our dinghy, and that we can’t tie up where we were. I asked if he was the harbormaster and I was going to thank him for all the help he had give us on the phone in scheduling our visit, but never answered the question. A complete 100% A-Hole who made us feel stupid in everything we did. Within 10 minutes of arrival, I was completely regretting our visit to Rosario, and we will never come back as long as Terry is the Harbor Master.

Based on those two customer service stories we have stayed at Roche Harbor at least 10 weekends to the 1 weekend that we stayed at Rosario Resort, and we will NEVER return to Rosario until they have a new harbor master.

I would guess as I write this blog post sitting on the yacht at Roche Harbor Resort that since we purchased this boat that 50% of all of the nights we have stayed on the boat have been at Roche Harbor. Compare that to never wanting to go back to Rosario Resort.

When I interact with customers I want to be sure that we are treating them like royalty, I want them to understand that they are important to me, and that their needs are the most important thing in keeping my business going. I want Stedman Solutions to be the Roche Harbor of customer service and not the Rosario Resort of customer service.

If a customers calls me with a serious emergency at 3:00am on a Saturday morning, once I have had a moment to wake up, I am always happy to help if it is a real emergency.

Some people that I have worked with over the years at former employer have been the 8am to 5pm employees, and they do nothing outside of that time frame. I don’t work that way, I am all in, and the difference between weekends and weekdays is not always that different. Why? Because being a business owner means that I need to keep almost all of the customers happy in order to maintain a solid business.

Here are some photos from Rosario Resort where I am staying this weekend. If a customer needs help, I am there to help.