Customer Satisfaction is the New Marketing

While I have always known that customer satisfaction is important in any business, the longer I work in the church market the more certain I am that nothing tops customer satisfaction as the key to long term success. Two weeks ago I attended the National Association of Church Business Administrators annual conference.
Since over half of the attendees to this event are current ACS customers, you always have many conversations on how ACS is working for the church. So how was the feedback? In a word: great. During the three day conference I and the other eight ACS staff members received good feedback on our products and services.
I wish I could have had the whole company take turns standing in the booth to experience the positive feedback first hand. Let me share a somewhat humorous story from the conference related to a satisfied customer.
Each year at the NACBA conference, I take time to talk with the other vendors in the church market. At this last meeting I was sitting at lunch with some staff of another church management software company comparing notes.  We were alone at the table when a church administrator asked to join us. After the normal introductions our new guest noticed my ACS shirt and she announced that her church used ACS and how much she loved it.
Of course it is always good to hear positive feedback, and it was especially nice to have one of your competitors witness it. But then it got a little awkward. It turned out that our lunch friend liked to talk and wanted to tell us all the reasons why she loved ACS. Needless to say, the competitors at the table were quiet for the remainder of lunch and did not appear to be enjoying the feedback session.
As I write this article on customer satisfaction, I know that sometimes we fall short of meeting the needs of every customer. Not every customer that could have joined us for lunch would have the same story. So if you have an unresolved issue or problem, please let me know (marvin.owen@acstechnologies.com) and I will do whatever I can to help.