How many times have you been to the grocery store and when you get to the checkout line the person there is grimacing and unsociable? Or you are at a restaurant and your server only does the minimum checking up on you and when they are there, act as if your being there is an inconvenience? When you are going through this does it seriously make you want to be a repeat customer?
Sometimes it feels like customer service really is a lost art. If you are trying to build a successful business customer service is paramount. People have to want to come back to your establishment or have to want to work with you. The real secret when it comes to customer acquisition and retention is experience. Give the customer an experience they will never forget. Most marketers will agree that an interactive experience is what is trending these days. Take advantage of this strategy and use it. When I am touring a family through my preschool I am thinking about creating an experience in which the family will have no choice but to say, "Yes! This is where I want my child to get an education." As I am creating this experience I always make sure that I am providing the parents with the formal information that they need to make an informed decision while showcasing the warm, nurturing atmosphere where their child will feel safe and able to learn. And while I may be giving a lot of information and showing the various rooms of the building, it's done with a smile and a feeling of gratitude for them being there.I am grateful that they have chosen to come look at my school. Even though they might go tour another school, they didn't have to come to my school but they did and this is my chance to show them that enrolling in my school is the best decision that they can make. If the child is there I get down on their level and talk to them; I use their name; I ask them if they would like to play while I speak with mom and dad. My customer service MUST extend to everyone. In this particular business a good sign of hopeful intent is if the child does not want to leave when it is time to go. This makes mom and dad feel some comfort that the child feels at home. What if you are not a business owner but an employee who wants to move up or simply be better at their job? I think back to a phrase I heard in the past from a former employer of mine, "When the boss is happy then everyone is happy." Now that may be a little one sided but any good employer or manager, who is thoughtful about their business and their employees will "Get" that if their employees are happy and making the business successful, then they (the manager) will be successful and happy. So as someone who is desiring to do better in their job what should they do? Well first off, familiarize yourself with the mission and vision of the business. What is the goal of the business? If it is a retail based business then one of the goals is to move product. If it is a service based business then a goal is to market and sell the service. Regardless of the type of business one goal everyone shares is - repeat business. When engaging with customers always take the high road and interact with them with a smile on your face and a genuine interest in them being there. Remember that without their service and sales there are no funds in which to pay you. Even if you are having a bad day, do your best to check the attitude at the door. Your bad mood is not going to provide outstanding customer service, nor is telling everyone or complaining about it. Be the best at what you can do in your position and people will respond to it. This becomes extremely important if the customer is having a bad day. Yes, we have all been there. A customer comes in and they have had a bad day and they are going to let everyone know it. By providing outstanding customer service you have the opportunity to turn their day around for the better and make them a repeat customer. What a great compliment if someone walks into the business and requests YOU! This also shows your employer and the people around you that you are working for the success of EVERYONE and not just yourself. Sometimes you have to be the example for others to follow and not in a cocky way but just by doing the right thing. Now I did mention asking about mission and vision. Asking these questions to the boss will either impress or distress the employer. It will impress them to know that you have a genuine interest in the depth of the business outside of your designated responsibilities. The only time it is going to distress the employer is if they don't have a mission and vision. Now they might feel intimidated that they don't have all of their ducks in a row and here they have someone asking about them. What is mission and vision? Simply put, your mission is the goal of your business and the vision is what you are going to do to achieve your mission. Outstanding customer service should be in every mission and vision unless you are fortunate enough to operate a business that does not require customers. The mission statement is going to be a bold statement that portrays the outcome of what your business will ultimately achieve. The vision are the various steps and stages that you will use to meet the mission. The mission generally will not change over time unless there is a major paradigm shift in the whole business concept. It might get tweaked but nothing major. The vision or the steps to achieve the mission can change as the business continues to grow and evolve. You may realize that certain steps are no longer needed while other steps may need to be added. Either way, familiarizing yourself with your company's mission and vision gives you better insight so that you can provide better customer service. The duty of customer service is a duty that should be shared by everyone. It is not an archaic means of obtaining business rather it is a vital means to an end. If anything remember this - customers want an experience. So give them one; a great, positive one. Building Leaders for Success is a company dedicated to the training and education of people who want to grow as leaders and obtain success. For more information visit us at www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com and like us on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success.
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Any ambitious, motivated person who wants to experience success in leadership is going to want to have their hands in the leadership of an organization. But this begs the question, how do I know my place within said organization?
I wouldn't necessarily call this a flaw but something I personally have to contend with; whatever organization or business that I am actively involved with, I almost feel compelled to be at the forefront of the leadership / decision making process. It is not a matter of ego as some might contend but more of a desire to use the skill set that I possess to help contribute to the overall success of the organization/business. My own reality drives me to believe that every business can be improved upon - mine to no exception. Take this reality combined with my self-prescribed attraction to leadership and I find myself being stretched in more ways than I can handle respectfully. It is not to say that I can't be a leader in any or all groups I associate with but I need to know my place. There have been numerous times where I was a more effective leader by being an excellent follower of someone else's leadership. The value of being a leader and having a supportive team is key to the health and success of your business. So is it necessary for me to be at that head table every single time? No. Maybe the most efficient place for me is to make myself accessible to those head leaders letting them know that I am here if I can be of service and then keep myself in the follower role. When those opportunities arise where I am asked to step up and take on a more involved leadership role, then of course I will do so and do so wholeheartedly. Once I have fulfilled those responsibilities then I move back to the following role. As more people utilize this approach it creates more opportunities for people to use their inherent value to strengthen the business as a whole. It also helps to efficiently distribute the workload so that the same tasks are not falling on the same people. As a managing leader for a few companies the toughest thing to do is manage those people whose ambitions and drive are similar to mine. Of course there are many people who share the same approach as I described above and are ok by leading through following but then there are others who have to be at the front. Again this is not always a product of egocentricity but then sometimes it is. Be smart and have those conversations to help find the right fit for all of those people in the grand puzzle of your company. As tough as it may seem sometimes, believe it or not, there is a place for everyone. The worst thing you can do is not take the time to find that spot and run the risk of losing someone who could add great value to what you are doing. As the individual trying to find their place, don't give up; realize that there is a place for you in any group. You have to be willing to be flexible until that right spot opens up for you. Maintain a sense of humility and keep a level of professional courtesy with the people around you. You wouldn't want to finally get to that right fit only to discover that the people you are working with don't respect you or worse yet, don't even want to be around you. Your role does not have to be a binary one - that is, you are either 100% in or not. Once you know how much time you can effectively dedicate to a task or project, have the conversation with the managing leader and be honest about what you can give and go from there. This approach will not work in every situation as sometimes job descriptions and what you have been hired for does not allow that flexibility. However if you are in a volunteer or somewhat volunteer environment then move ahead with that process. Or if you are in a corporate environment and have the opportunity to have the conversation, you can achieve your desired results through delegating aspects of the task or project. This will allow you to use the time you have available to ensure that the part you are responsible for is the best you can produce. No matter whether you are in the head leader position or in the following position, remember that you do have a place. Know it, respect it and make the best of it. Above all remember that you add value but it is up to you to share that value. Know your place…. as a valued leader who wants to make a positive difference towards your success and that of those around you. For more information on these topics and more visit us at www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com and like us on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success. Many people took Saturday to take their significant others out for dinner, dancing and maybe a show all in the name of LOVE. That same feeling of LOVE which makes relationships so successful also apply to the success we aim to achieve in our professional lives as well. Ok maybe not the smoochy smoochy type of love but a love and sense of self fulfillment for what we are doing.
I will admit that there are many days where I question myself on why do I continue to put up with what I have to put up with. The easy way out would be to sell a business or two and just live off of the earnings. But the main reason I don't do that is because I love what I do. If I did not keep myself in a state of learning through experiences, even if those experiences don't come in a positive light, then I would not be able to continue to love what I do. From every experience I always try to find something to learn; maybe I could have handled a situation differently, or maybe the approach another person used was more efficient; no matter what the lesson, anything I can pick up to better myself is a check in the win category. When you are having a bad day or something negative has happened, sometimes the simple act of saying what you love can bring you back to a positive place where you can resume working towards your goals. Here are some LOVE affirmations that I like to use when I am not feeling 100% positive or optimistic:
You can have as few or as many affirmations as you choose. Many of my success students use their family or their pets to bring them back to a positive place. It is also good to LOVE being in good health, having a vehicle that gets you where you need to go. The more LOVE we have in our lives, the better our chance for staying in a positive mindset. The more we stay in a positive mindset the better our chances for achieving meaningful success in our lives. So today go forth with feelings of LOVE of your job, your ambitions and yourself. If you are enjoying these blogs the best compliment you can give is a referral to utilize our services. Please continue to follow us here on www.buildingleadersforsuccess.com and like us on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success. As the title suggests, are the emotions and events of love, pain and death really factors for success? In a word - Yes!
Emotions are powerful elements when it comes to motivational success. The difference between one who uses these elements for success and one who does not is the choice to utilize said elements. The value of choice is always a determining factor in our path towards success. Let's put this into context: In the recent past I lost an uncle to cancer. There was a time that we thought they had beaten the cancer or at least had it in a workable state of remission. Unfortunately in the months prior to christmas we discovered that the cancer had come back aggressively and was spreading. This was very devastating to our family. Despite this news, we were still hopeful that something could be done. Even once it was determined that it was beyond control and that the only goal was to keep him comfortable, as a family unit we were successful in making that happen. Even in his last days my uncle was surrounded by friends and family and the love that was present far surpassed any pain that could have existed. Where is the success in this sad story? Well it is not in the fact that we were able to make him comfortable in his last days. It was in the legacy that we all discovered. As a family we knew my uncle as the caring, giving, family man who was like a giant teddy bear. We also knew that he was liked and respected by his peers. However it wasn't until this last part of his life that we realized how successful he was. The legacy he created fast surpassed what we knew of him. All of the wonderful things we knew about him were being magnified ten fold. The impact that this man made in the lives of his family, his coworkers and his friends was incredibly profound. His presence in our lives saved so many people in spiritual and emotional ways. It wasn't just the hard work and his many years of service around the world in the Air Force, it was the character that he possessed and the effect it had on anyone who met him. He was a man that everyone adopted to be a part of their families. This is simply how special he was. Even in death, we as a family find ourselves motivated to be better people; do better in our jobs; give more to society and make the world a better place. These states of motivation are stimulated by the emotions we felt and continue to experience through the life and death of my wonderful uncle. Speaking from my own perspective I had a choice to make. During the mourning process I could let my uncle's death completely derail me emotionally and psychologically or I could use his example to modify my life. And while it is still recent and the pain is real, I know that I hope people will speak of me when my time has passed the way they have spoken about my uncle. If I can be a better person, employer, entrepreneur, teacher, motivator and god-fearing individual, then the lessons that my uncle has instilled in me are being fulfilled. In life and in death, emotion and the value of choice are powerful factors that can be used to make you more successful in your personal and professional lives. If these blogs are a source of help for you please like our Facebook page - Building Leaders for Success. Or better yet, utilize our services and let us present one of our programs to you and your team. The best compliment you can give us is a referral. Visit our contact page to speak with a representative. For the person who truly values the achievement of success, they will understand that you have to work everyday for it. While we can experience success on a daily basis the big successes that many of us work for take time. With this in mind we are constantly looking for the various formulas that will put us on the pathway to achieving the big success.
Working for success really is like working out at the gym. To achieve one's fitness goals one must work daily to achieve his or her goals. There is the constant monitoring of weight, fat percentage, body mass index, addition of weights in your routine, how much time is dedicated to cardio, etc. For the fitness enthusiast, monitoring these items as well as a slew of others, allow them to track how close they are to achieving a fitness goal. Once they have achieved that goal they will set another goal and work towards that goal. This process applies to anyone pursuing any success goal. You must identify the various steps needed to obtain the goal. How are these steps monitored? What can you do to improve on the steps? Once you have achieved your goal or met a success, what are the next steps to get you to your next goal or success? Here are some ideas for your general success goals that can be helpful by incorporating them into your daily success workout:
We will continue to add to your daily success workout but try these to get started. Let's look at some comparison's between gym observations and success observations.
So as you continue your day ask yourself, are you working daily for success? If not, why? We hope you are enjoying these blogs. The best compliment you can give us is your referral. Please contact us about utilizing our seminar services. For more information on our services and to receive our blogs, like us on Facebook at Building Leaders for Success. |
AuthorFrank Taylor is founder and CEO of Building Leaders for Success, Inc. A musician of 25 years, educator of 15 years and a motivational speaker of 16 years, Mr. Taylor brings a wealth of knowledge that will promote success and fundamentals of leadership. Archives
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