S09 - Session P1 - Awesome Customer Service for Urban Agriculture

Authors: Eric Barrett *, Robert Leeds

Urban farms struggle with the same challenges as other farm direct marketers in retail agriculture. This includes valuing long term relationships with customers for building a profitable brand. Every contact with each customer defines the farm brand and affects the future of the business. This presentation will share an innovative approach to develop an improved customer service plan in the context of urban agriculture. The approach includes four steps to providing awesome customer service. These steps are: 1. Prepare n examine current expectations and stereotypes of the operation, develop a plan including all possible interaction 2. Respond- Empower all employees to assist, provide trainings and incentives, align performance assessment with customer experience. 3. Recover n Things will go wrong, have a plan for potential customer service fails. Designate who is in charge. Communicate, understand it is a long-term relationship, not just about the issue at hand. Fix things with the relationship mind. 4. Improve Practices n Update the plan. Prepare for next time. Anticipate future customer service issues.