Growing Pains

We have been trying to change the program with our level of service.  I have decided to try to maintain the size of my company, (not grow) over the next 2 years, and really improve our level of service for the customers we have.  My strategy for the last two years has been to increase my market share.  I learned a difficult lesson, that in order to grow and be successful, one must be prepared and staffed properly.  This lesson is taught early on in business school, but in the real world, it is tricky to apply.  There is a fine line between greed and ambition.   Moving forward, I am doing what many businesses do to improve in customer service.  I am going back to my original mission for why I am in the swimming pool business.  It is not just to make money.  God knows there are easier ways to make money than running a pool business.  My original vision was to build long-term relationships with my customers.  Actually, I wanted to make friends with the people I serve and I wanted to be the best in the service business.  My vision was for customers to think of my company and, without hesitation, recommend us to anyone that had a pool.  I saw them smiling when they heard the name of my company, or when they saw me or my employees approach the driveway.  I never saw us having the largest number of customers in the business.  I never saw us having the largest company.  I saw us being the best in the business for providing excellent customer service, in the pool industry.  I saw our customers being delighted with our construction process and with our final product - their new custom built pool.   As I write this, I realize it may sound like we have failed completely, but the truth is somewhere in the middle.  After 7 long years of ups and downs, I feel that we are right in the middle of where my vision had us, and a lynch mob.  Do we have customers that are delighted with us?  Yes!  Absolutely we do.  Are all of our customers delighted with us?  No way.  Anyone that has been in the service business knows that you can't please everyone, but you can please most.  You can also please more than you are currently.  If I had a dime for every time I avoided a difficult conversation with a customer that had a complaint, I could buy a new truck today.