Quint Studer addresses the crowd during the Studer Community Institute's latest workshop.

More than 250 business owners packed Hillcrest Baptist Church in Pensacola on Tuesday, Aug. 18, to learn about making customers happy.

The “Achieving Excellent Customer Service: Winning Customers and Keeping them Happy” workshop, presented by The Studer Community Institute, was the latest in a series of events meant to nurture and improve the business community in Pensacola.

“When we began this series last year, we asked business people what concerns they would like to see addressed in our workshops,” said Rachael Gillette, director of Professional Development for the Studer Community Institute. “Customer service was one of their top requests.”

According to Gillette, a wide variety of businesses sent staff to the training.

“Among those groups attending were Navy Federal Credit Union, Escambia County Public Works, the University of Florida, Susan Campbell Jewelry, Beck Partners and others,” Gillette said.

The speakers for the event were business leader and Studer Community Institute founder Quint Studer and Bob Murphy, senior leader, teacher and executive coach for Studer Group.

“When Quint speaks, whether it is the first time you’re hearing him or seeing him again, he’s always engaging, relatable and entertaining,” Gillette said.

The workshop was based on two of Studer’s books, “Results That Last” and “The Great Employee Handbook,” whose lessons have been adopted by businesses around the world.

Murphy spoke about building a business culture around service. His message was that businesses should increase customer loyalty by exceeding customer expectations and presenting proven tactics to enhance customers’ experience.

“Bob illustrated the tactics with real world examples and made them easy for everyone to understand,” Gillette said.

The workshop also sought to keep attendees engaged and accountable to implement what they learned.

“We gave everyone an envelope, addressed to their business and asked them to put three items down that they learned and want to apply to their business.,” Gillette said. “We collected those envelopes and in three months, we will mail those so they can hold themselves accountable.”

Attendees were asked to rate the value of the workshop, and Tuesday’s feedback was a new record for the series.

“Our previous high had been 9.4 out of ten,” Gillette said. “This session was rated a 9.7.”

Attendees were vocal about what they got out of the session.

“I began selling in 1970 and one thing I know: there are seminars that are good, some are a waste and sometimes if you are lucky, you get a great one,” said Realtor Bill Sheffield. “This morning was a great one.  If when a break is called you think the presenter has gone 30 minutes and they have gone an hour and a half - it is a good day.“

More workshops in the series are planned.

“We’re already looking at future sessions on performance management, process improvement, board development, employee engagement, as well as entrepreneurship through the upcoming EntreCon event in November,” Gillette said.