COMPASSION

Too often in business I see employees tossed aside due to not fitting in with current management plans. I see managers not taking an interest in their staff, and I witness extra workloads being heaped on workers and their resources cut.

We all must learn to work with each other with compassion and empathy. Treat each other as a lovable colleague and a fellow human soul on earth.
We all go to work to support ourselves and family, and it makes the day much better and rewarding for all if we excercise compassion and love to one another, instead of as numbers on the payroll to be shunted about and cut back when business is lean.

HIRING SUPERSTARS

"Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine."

- David Ogilvy

THE PERSONAL TOUCH

With your regular clients and customers you should be developing a relationship and know their needs and preferences.
Once you get a feel of who they are and what excites them, you can customise their surroundings to please them.
For example if you are in the hotel sector or hospitality, and one regular client is really into sailing....you place the latest sailing magazines in their room as a gift to take away. ( substitute golf, riding, gardening etc for others).

If you own a bar or restaurant then you can emboss a glass or plate with a customers initials - it's theirs and by default their bar/restaurant too.

Similarly with any business you can repay your customers loyalty to you by tailoring small things to please them and reward them to make the bond and loyalty even stronger. In turn I'm willing to bet that they will increase your customer base for you without you even asking.

START WITH YOUR STAFF

It astounds me how often I see new business ventures or expanding companies invest millions of dollars on premises and plush venues, then at the last minute rush through recruitment and appointments of key staff.

It does'nt matter a jot about the architecture or wall coverings when the customer gets a sub-standard level of service when making a transaction or experiencing your service.

Invest proportionately in your key personnel, and you will recoup that investment in later dividends. Otherwise you will just become 'another average company'.

Motivate them, train them, care about them and make winners out of them. We know if we treat our employees right, they'll treat the customers right. And if customers are treated right, they'll come back.
- J.W. Marriot, Jr

ITS ALL ABOUT THEM

Every promotion or advertisement for your business needs to shout out the benefits to the customer. There is no use telling people about how many awards you have won, or about how large your corporation is. The customer is only focused on what's in it for them.
The benefits for the customer need to be front and centre.
Only after the customer has chosen you do they then need all the facts and figures about your business, which are used in their mind to then justify their choice after the decision has been made to choose you.

So beware about how you are describing yourself to the wider world, just remember its all about them first, not you.

WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU?

A customer can read through insencerity. So you need to be sincere in all that you do, and that means examining if the work that you do is really what's best for you.
If you wake up each day with no motivation to go back and do another day at that place, then change. It is your choice to go and find something that fires you up each day. Only then can you give sincere and meaningful service to others.
The other bonus is that you are doing something which keeps you alive and makes you feel glad to be a part of this wondrous universe.
So....go and find what you want to do and do it to the best of your ability, then you are serving both yourself and the world.

INTEGRITY - RARE & PRICELESS

Just doing the right thing, and saying the right thing, is becoming harder to find.
Customers just want to be treated right - and with honesty. So if you as an individual can hold on to the virtue that is integrity, then you already have an advantage. An advantage that is huge because so few others can make the extra effort which comes from living with integrity as a core philosophy.

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.
- Henry Ford

ONE BAD APPLE

There is a well known phrase about the one bad apple which starts to spoil, and thereby ruins the whole barrel of good apples.

The same is true in the service industry. If you have one stale employee, they can undo so much of the good work done by others that you may as well have no good staff at all.

You need to weed out the stale ones and improve them or move them.

" One hundred minus one can't be ninety-nine in the hotel business. It may be zero. If one employee out of hundreds gives a bad impression to a certain customer, it will be one hundred percent damage for our hotel image for that customer" - Ichiro Inumaru - President Imperial Hotel Japan.

SO WHAT IS SERVICE?

PICK YOURSELF UP

Through our daily commitments we often have a little turbulence. Be it from the boss, or a family argument or just staff giving us a hard time.

Whatever the cause, we do need to keep our minds in a good place. That way we are resilient enough to keep our core values intact no matter what the day throws our way.

I keep a string of wise quotes in my diary to inspire me, which spring open each time I use it. On the front page I also have in bold print a few trigger words to jolt me into the correct attitude. My words are simply :- Integrity, honesty, kindness, and character.

Find your own inspiration of course and use these to just act like a frequent push button method of keeping your mind and outlook on track through the day.

" Revolve your world around the customer and more customers will revolve around you. "

Heather Williams

SPIRIT OF GIVING

Behind all great service lies the mindset of giving. True service in any form is merely kindness and empathy to your fellows.

By wanting to give out your hand to make their day better, or by wanting to make someones life a little easier - we not only make the world a better place, but we also nourish our own spiritual being.

I do not know of a better way to spend my day than by following this tenet. Give a little to someone else today and see how your own life starts to change for the better.

" We shall serve for the joy of serving. Prosperity shall flow to us and through us in unending streams of plenty. "

Charles Fillmore. 1854 - 1948

BACK UP PLAN

There will be times when staff are sick or are held up.
When that happens, are your customers going to be inconvenienced, or do you have a back up plan?
It is quite unacceptable to offer inferior service or expect customers to wait because your staffing levels have dropped. Each customer pays the same price for your service so it is essential for you to operate adequate contingency plans.

In the restaurant trade we have staff on standby on busy nights so that if there are staff no shows, we can still operate with a full floor staff, and our service levels are not compromised.

In other industries gaps in staffing levels can have knock on effects across extended front line areas so that many departments and many more customers are indirectly affected.

The solution :- have a back up plan.

" Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten. "
Gucci

KNOWING A NAME

There really is nothing sweeter to another persons ears than their own name.
If it is a customer or a colleague, the same rule applies, know their name and use it. I keep a little address book with me with the names of all the people I generally meet in a given week. Noted with these names are also the names of their children or wives or other close associates .
Once I have quickly glanced at these notes before I ring them or see them, it gives me a memory jog to enquire about their children / partner / boss or others.
If you do it in a natural and conversational way people remember you for caring about the welfare of not just them but their life too.

SERVICE RECOVERY

On the rare occasion that things do go wrong, have you got in place a service recovery strategy?

Not only can this management method help retain an upset customer, but when done right - you may be in a position to convert that customer to a raving and loyal fan.

The trick is to train your staff and managers to recognise when a customer has been upset or is not content. Then the strategy you have in place needs to wow back that client by going over the top to please them again. This can be done in some innovative and smart ways, but ensure that top management are involved in the apology so that the customer realises that the company does really care about the mistake they have made.

Indeed you can use the mistake as an excellent learning tool, just remember to find the source of the error and ensure that lessons were learned with those individuals.

RON SAYS....

RECRUITING RIGHT

By showing your job applicant that their job is of great worth to the business, you are setting up an amicable and long term relationship which will show dividends and benefits later on. This is the most important time to get the process right, and it is imperative to do all you can at this early stage to make the applicant welcome, and to feel of value.
Too often I see this process rushed through and carried out by junior team members. The recruitment process should be considered by everyone as of great importance. Ideally a General Manager or Director should be present for part of the process to underline your opinion that this process is important.

Too often the simple act of offering interviewees some basic hospitality is overlooked by companies, or they have not even bothered to read an applicants CV properly before the interview. Instead of being properly welcomed, they are dumped in a corner and told to fill out a form, and then kept waiting for ages.

Get it right and the business will grow.

ARE YOU LEARNING

The internet can be used as a great time waster if you allow it, but also offers an immense resource of learning materials. Apart from online reports and articles on excellence in customer service, there are countless videos by professional speakers. Many of these people are paid thousands of dollars a time to present speeches and lectures in the corporate world. Yet they are generous enough to share these nuggets of wisdom online FOR FREE!

So instead of catching up on the latest gossip or news reports online, go and do a little studying on service skills - it is fun and interesting. Whats more it sure beats being bombarded by rubbish on the TV.

GIVING GIFTS

At Christmas time many employers dread the thought of trying to appear generous with their staff gifts, and wondering what to give. Then there is the fear of what to give according to the respective hierarchy of staff and managers, who gets what and will they be offended ?

It happens every year and each time less time is spent on planning it all until it becomes the dreaded job that nobody wants to do. Subsequently the act of giving and the unease that is felt behind it all is reflected in the staff not appreciating the process anyway. Indeed more damage can be done by giving a cheap and nasty gift, than by not giving any at all.

The solution is to start from the right mindset. Have an act of genuine appreciation for your staff at the outset and forefront of it all. Begin the planning of it 6 months ahead, and tease out some constructive answers from the staff early about what they may enjoy receiving, or if the concept could be adapted better to perhaps have an outing or party instead.