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Did you just spell your customer's name wrong?

December 27, 2012 by Micah Solomon — president, four aces inc

"They spelled my name wrong again!" sings Loudon Wainwright III, the incomparable (if hard-to-spell) singer-songwriter.

In business, many of our customers with hard-to-spell names can relate to Loudon’s frustration of seeing "my name up there in lights"… and then noticing "it's not spelled right."

The pranks we play in business on customers’ names are legion.

• Misspellings
• Unsolicited shortenings and nicknames (“Do you mind if I call you Debbie?”)  
• Mispronunciations (nothing’s more grating than a sycophantic salesman inserting your name into every other sentence… but doing so with the wrong pronunciation).

A happy event recently reminded me of the importance of getting the little details about your customers right. Pete Brace of Merrick Pet Care sent our four dogs some fantastic dog food and related awesome swag. It was an amazing care package; I’ve rarely seen our dogs so happy.

But most impressive? Mr. Brace had spelled not only my name correctly in the cover note, but the names of each of our four dogs perfectly (Potter, Petey, CT, and Weasley, in case you were curious).

It’s true, in the age of cut and paste there’s almost no excuse for misspelling your customers’ names. Or getting their other little details wrong. Yet Pete’s perfectly-spelled cover letter remains the exception.

It’s hard to give extraordinary service if you’re not paying attention. An organization like the Ritz-Carlton gets to know its guests to the point of figuring out which corner of the bed they prefer to have turned down in the evenings before they get into bed (yes, we each have a preference in this area — think about it). This gives a cared-for feeling that is hard for a customer to ignore.

This is the level of service I urge us all to aspire to. But first, we have to get your customers’ names right. Or the game is up before it even starts.

About Micah Solomon

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