Laurie and Bruce Adee, Desert Sun Tanning

In the heart of Seattle, Laurie and Bruce Adee are making their mark with four locations of the Desert Sun Franchise. Open since 2006, they strive to provide the ultimate in customer satisfaction through prompt communication and educated staff. According to Laurie, it all boils down to accountability:

I make my cell phone number available for the staff to give out. If a customer isn’t satisfied they are urged to have them give the owner – me – a call. I do my best to handle it immediately or get back to them within a day. I find that once they are on the phone with the owner, the yelling stops and they become a lot easier to deal with.

But we encourage the staff to handle things on their own as much as possible. If we are around we will critique them after the client is out of the building. They need guidance because unlike so many other interactions, we generally deal with people face to face. They have to learn that it’s not personal – the customer is angry about something that happened and they are not trying to attack them. Once they learn that, it’s a lot easier to figure out options and make something happen, but my card is always a safety net if things get out of control.

We have them fill out incident reports if anything out of the ordinary occurs to tell us about the situation and keep everyone in the loop on what action was taken. Sometimes they can settle it themselves, but other times we need to take extra steps to know that the problem is solved. It’s 10 times better if we can settle things on the spot and give them something to make them happy: It’s better for them to leave satisfied than delaying it. Our aim is to keep everyone happy and coming back. The customer is our bread and butter.