Business by Design this month explores how two top performers "wow" their customers with the service they provide.

THIS MONTH:
+ Service Makes the Difference
+ Service Makes You Money
+ A Winning Combination: Tools + Talktime
+ Word Gets Around...

SERVICE MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
Ask two of the nation's leading design professionals for the key to their success, and they respond with a single word: Service.

You might think elite, big ticket professionals like Elissa Cullman and Alexa Hampton, both New York City designers included on Architectural Digest's list of the world's top 100 interior designers, need not focus on exceeding the service needs of their clients.

Think again.

In this era of keen competition and demanding customers, Cullman and Hampton each cite service as a major way they differentiate themselves.

"Everybody does pretty work," Cullman declares. "It's my firm's service that we're most proud of."

Included in that service are customized computer spread sheets that estimate the highest and lowest cost of each item she's considering for a client's design project. That means each lamp, each sofa, each pillow.

The paperwork "helps keep our customers on track," according to Cullman.

"Even in a good economy when you're dealing with a multi- million dollar project, clients want to know how to set cash flow for 3-4 years down the road," she explains.

The spread sheets are just one of several ways in which Cullman and her 16 member staff take care of their customers. Other services range from helping them organize their personal belongings to assisting them with dinner parties to finding them housekeepers.

SERVICE MAKES YOU MONEY
Hampton, who was mentored by her father, the late Mark Hampton, believes the key to getting high end fees is to offer high end customer service.

"My advice to new designers is value your customers and value yourself," notes Hampton, who charges full retail and quotes her hourly fee as $225.

She admits that she's "expensive" but says she goes out of her way to include in her fees services for which other designers charge extra.

"I've washed a client's walls on Christmas morning and didn't bill him for it," she recalls. "And I go to auctions and bid for clients at no cost. Also, I don't charge for shipping and postage and other odds and ends." Then, too, she goes all out to work within her clients' budgets.

Easy for her to say, perhaps, considering that her client list includes the likes of the White House and Blair House in Washington and the U.S. Embassy in Paris. But she attributes that client base -- and her success -- to her single-minded focus on customer service.

Her service philosphy? Very simple, really: "Be good, be nice, don't get impatient and don't talk down to your clients."

WORD GETS AROUND....
Unhappy customers don't keep secrets.

Studies show that:

+ The average upset customer tells nine people about it. One in five will tell more than 20.

+ The average business never hears from 96% of its unhappy customers. But 90% of them won't buy from them again.

+ For every complaint, the average firm has 26 customers with problems.

+ Of customers with a complaint, 70% will do business with you again if you resolve the problem -- and 95% will if you do so quickly.