Making Your First Million.pdf - Association of Net Entrepreneurs and ...

Making Your First Million
I would drive past a dozen ordinary car service places to go to a place that wanted my
business enough to call me by my name, had name tags on staff, spoke to me politely,
answered the phone on the third ring, had clean premises, followed through on promises
and kept me up to date on the progress of the car rather than my having to chase them.
And if they drove me back to my office and came to pick me up in the car when it was
finished I would think I was in heaven. We are all in sales. Whether we are gardeners,
mechanics, teachers, or business people, we all sell. Our appearance, demeanor, customer
interaction, all contribute to the selling process and we need to train our staff to become
customer focused.
The customer makes the difference between failure and outrageous success. We need to
understand what our customers want. This is the business we're in, finding out what our
customers really want, and providing it for them. We need to understand that the goods
or services we provide are incidental. They're what we're good at but they are not what
the customer wants. They are simply the means we use to give the customer what he
really wants. What do customers want? To be recognised. To have someone care enough
about them to use their name. And to be treated like a friend of the family who has come
in for special treatment. Sure, they want solutions to their problems, and that's what we're
in business to do. But if we look after her as if she were a rich aunt who might leave us a
million next year, you get the idea of how she needs to be treated.
This requires a change of mindset in our staff. We need to encourage them to place the
emphasis on looking after customers as if they were rich, ailing aunts, because, in
essence, they are. The sum total of delighted customers will make each of your staff
wealthy. Share part of your profit with your staff and you have all the incentive they need
to become committed to excellent service. Technical expertise is good as far as it goes.
Performing to specifications is fine and is all part of good customer service. But we want
great customer service. The difference between ordinary service, which produces
ordinary results, and extraordinary service, which produces wildly, outrageously,
extravagant results is training. We may not be able to fashion a silk purse from a sow's
ear but we can train our staff, however bovine they may start out, to treat customers as
special.
Train your staff thoroughly and give those who perform 10% to 15% of your profits on
top of award wages, but don't give it to everyone just yet. Insist that to participate in the
profit share, each of your staff meet performance criteria based on training and customer
service excellence. You will need to properly document performance criteria. You'll need
to spell out what you expect from them, not just in skills and work performance, but in
attitude to customers. They may adopt a bovine, unionist approach, refusing to adapt to
what they may perceive as a lah-de-dah, poncy approach. Remind them that the customer
pays their pay check, not you. This is real stuff. If they can't change, get rid of them.
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