I’d like to share a lovely review I recently received from one of my customers:
“Just for Tummies – providers of the most amazing products that really help and the most excellent customer service that you could possibly wish for. Thank you so much, Linda, for the free pot of For Women probiotics that you sent to me – what an extremely kind gesture. I thought that level of customer service had died years ago. You truly deserve every success. Thank you again!”
Sometimes I can get rather bogged down by the minutiae of running Just For Tummies, and lose sight of why I developed the brand in the first place. Receiving a review like this is a perfect reminder as to why.
For me, communicating with my customers on a human level is key. Yes, the internet is fantastic; it’s hard to imagine life without it now. It has brought the world closer than ever and helped people in so many ways, but it has also made people wander away from each other. When you don’t see the person you are chatting with, or don’t hear the sound of their voice, you can never truly gauge their intentions. That’s why I make the utmost effort to ensure that my Just For Tummies business is ‘seen and heard’. I am a strong believer in ‘humanology over technology’. To use the words of my first ever employer, ‘The customer is king’.
I came across this simple message when I was 17 years old, and had just started my first job in a bank after leaving full-time secretarial college. The bank manager, a no-nonsense Yorkshireman, put the customer before everything and he impressed his customer-focused work ethic onto me. It has stood me in very good stead ever since. I strive to deliver top quality, exceptional, and genuinely personal customer service.
Businesses are run by people, for people, and they thrive on the personal touch. Care, affection and warmth are human virtues that cannot, and will not, be found in an email or a social media update. I do use social media, but I never lose sight of how important human interaction is. I want people to feel as though they can get the help they need and feel a personal connection with me and my Just For Tummies business.
I feel an enormous sense of responsibility to answer the hundreds of enquiries that I receive, and there have been times when I have found this heavily taxing on my body, mind, and soul, especially now that my beloved dad has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But this is my purpose.
I decided to launch Just For Tummies so that I could help more people with their digestive and gut health. Knowing how many thousands of people are struggling daily, in many cases simply down to a lack of knowledge around effective ways to manage and treat their conditions, is what drives me on. When I am able to help someone improve how they feel and enhance the quality of their life in some way, it all feels worth it.
I know at some point I will have to give in to my stubbornness and get more help handling enquiries – after all, I want to help as many people as possible, and this can’t be done single-handedly! I’ve never been very good at delegating, but I need to learn.
That said, nothing gives me greater pleasure than someone saying, “Linda, you have changed my life!” I thank my lucky stars that I happened upon the path of training in colonic hydrotherapy – this was the point in my life when I was struck by a profound sense of being in the right place, with the right person training me in a complementary therapy discipline that would have a huge effect on my life, and on the lives of so many other people. It has given me the knowledge to build up a busy digestive and gut health clinic, and then develop my own range of Just For Tummies supplements.
And, the journey isn’t yet over!
