Customer Service
My first experiences providing great experiences for my patrons was in the food service industry. At what used to be know as Kentucky Fried Chicken, diners wanted their fried foods fast, fresh and with a faint friendliness. Then I moved on into waiting tables at a diner - heavier on the friendly, a little more lax of the fast. My career path led me to cocktail serving, bar-tending and eventually training others to do food & beverage service jobs. I got really good at delivering superior service with a smile and caring about my customer's happiness.Client Support
Twenty-five years later and my focus is ensuring fantastic support for my clients in the dance studio industry. They want their systems smooth and streamlined, their information flows clear, concise and correct. Not so hard when you have 1 client (and your own kids dance there) - but now I have moved on to coordinating contractors, creating machines to run my processes, and once again - training others to do dance studio client support jobs. I am still pretty good at delivering superior support with a smile and caring about my client's happiness.This past week I realized that I do indeed offer so much more than just Virtual Assistance. My clients can talk to me about things they can't share with their staff and families because Studio Owners have to maintain and objective, fair and neutral environment for their students to belong to. Their jobs are more about building community than developing dancers, truth be told. They may use dance as the method to connect, but the "vibe of the tribe" is what keeps those tiny tappers and bitty ballerinas returning year after year.
Continued Success
It's super important that my clients' billing is accurate, and the tuition is calculating correctly, and the team fees are added to all the right students, tshirt and jacket orders are collected, missing information is found and communication with their families is fostered. These are the tasks that my team and I do - but the most important thing we offer our Studio Owners is peace of mind. In whatever way they need it. We are there to partner, serve or mentor - whichever suits their style (and sometimes morphing in and out of the roles).Studio Owner Advocate
In other news, after 90 days of being an independent contractor, I accepted the full time role with Dance Studio Pro Support. I am excited, though a bit disappointed by the starting pay. I am after all their first employee in California! But the opportunities for advancement are solidly there. And benefits- though I don't yet even know what they are like - the main one is more freedom over my schedule and workflows while taking on more responsibility with the systems and documentation for the team as we grow. My favorite things.Happy Sunday!
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| Two of my four "whys" |
