The Customer Signs Your Paycheck - Softcover

Cooper, Frank

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071632883 ISBN 13: 9780071632881

Publisher: McGraw Hill, 2009

Synopsis

Positive Service Gets Positive Results―Every Time!

Customer loyalty is becoming harder to establish and just as difficult tomaintain. This is truer than ever in today’s hyperdigital world, where a singlecustomer venting his or her dissatisfaction on a blog or social network canamass an army of anti-you activists―and send your business spiraling.

The Customer Signs Your Paycheck reveals the secret to ensuring customercontentment during every interaction. Inside, Frank Cooper examines theelements at the heart of quality customer service, which begin with selfawarenessand confidence. You’ll learn:

• The 10 commandments for customer relations
• Eight habits to help you get ahead
• The easiest way to handle customer complaints
• A simple method for remembering names

You’ll immediately take note of dramatic changes in the way you deal withdifficult personalities, customer complaints, and other challenges that comewith the territory.

Why drive customers to the competition? It really is easy to provide superbservice, even when dealing with today’s highly empowered and demandingcustomer.

About this title

About the Author

Frank Cooper Frank Cooper is the author of How to Grow a Profitable Business and has beenrunning his own speaking and consulting business for more than 35 years. Heresides in Washington State.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Customer Signs Your Paycheck

By Frank Cooper

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Frank Cooper
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-163288-1

Contents

Chapter One

POISE AND CONFIDENCE IN CUSTOMER RELATIONS

Have you ever wondered why the people at your company hired YOU? They probably could have chosen someone else if they had wanted to ... but they didn't! They saw personal traits in you that are important to the company's image, and then hired you to help present that image to the public.

When you were interviewed for your job, the person who made the decision to hire you was looking for specific personal qualities from among job applicants. Every business knows that its success in the marketplace can be greatly enhanced by hiring the "right" people. The hiring decision is one of the most expensive decisions that a company makes if you consider the cost of training a new employee and the total amount of wages and benefits that will be paid during the entire time of employment. But even more important is the question, "How will this new employee affect our customer relations?"

When it comes to customer relations, your greatest strength will always be in the uniqueness of your personality. When you let your personality shine forth, you do a tremendous favor for your company. It makes people—customers—feel good about doing business with you. There really is magic in your personality! You have a personality that cannot, and will not, ever be duplicated. And your unique personality carries with it your own special pattern for success in whatever you do in life.

The only thing necessary to let the power of your personality shine forth is to accept yourself and to like yourself. People who like themselves seem to have an easier time with whatever they do. They are the people who take a good look at themselves and decide that the only people they can ever be are themselves, and they learn to accept and appreciate who they are. They build on their strengths rather than compensate for their weaknesses. They become themselves rather than trying to become someone else. And it feels good!

Now you'd think that this business of liking yourself might be pretty easy. Well, it is for some people. People who were fortunate enough to have parents who kept telling them they were OK learned to believe in themselves early in life. But it seems that most of us pick up mistaken notions about ourselves during our formative years as our attention is drawn to the need for improvement. We grow up learning to identify our shortcomings much more easily than our good qualities.

Another stumbling block to self-appreciation is the mistaken idea that we must be perfect at all times. Nobody's perfect. Each of us is OK, but not perfect. Life would be pretty dull if we all were perfect, wouldn't it? We must settle for being OK, realizing that we do make mistakes as we learn. Being imperfect is a sign of vitality, because it is a sign of growth potential, and growth is the only sign of life! If we are green, we are growing; if we are ripe, we are rotting. Perfect is ripe.

When you make a mistake, it is important that you take responsibility for the error immediately rather than find excuses or try to "fix the blame" on someone or something else. The sooner you admit to a mistake, the sooner you profit by it, and the sooner you're happy again. Admit the mistake, correct it if you can, and get on with life.

Everyone has occasional experiences on the job that have negative effects on poise and self-confidence. It could be a corrective reprimand from a supervisor, a difficult customer, or some other uncomfortable situation that leaves the person feeling "down." The temptation at these times might be to complain bitterly to fellow employees or to other customers, but this would be a mistake that could have significant negative results. When we complain, we sow the seeds of negativity in our work environment, and when those negative seeds sprout and grow, we find ourselves not enjoying life very much. We're much better off if we handle difficult situations in a positive manner and then try to learn what kind of action can improve our future performance.

Remember, if you are conscientiously trying to do your best work and be the best person you can be, there is absolutely no reason why you should ever feel "second rate." The world's population is now in the billions, but among those billions there is not one person who is more important than you are. We're all in this together! When your poise and self- confidence get shaken, pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and move on. Handle reprimands and difficult customers as opportunities to learn more about people and life in general, and as a result you will discover that life gets easier.

And finally, don't you just love to be around people who like themselves? They're the kind of people who know that they are OK and don't have to go through life trying to prove it to themselves and to others. Liking yourself is often a question of "Why not?" Who else can you be? You've got what it takes, and you don't have to add one thing to yourself. You just have to let it happen.

Chapter Two

YOU ARE A CUSTOMER, TOO

The best way to understand good customer relations is to pause for a moment and consider your own experience as a customer. You are a customer almost every day of your life. How do you like to be treated when you are making a purchase? What kind of attitude do you appreciate in a clerk or salesperson when it is your money that will be pushed across the counter in exchange for a product or service?

Can you recall a recent incident in which you were treated incorrectly as a customer? Is there a particular place where you avoid doing business because of the way you are treated as a customer?

As you read this book, you will begin to develop a new perspective on every business transaction. In fact you will see living proof of this book's pages in your almost daily experience as a customer. Examine these experiences, and you will continue to develop a strong sense of what it takes to be successful in customer relations in the real world of business.

As an employee, you have an excellent opportunity to enhance the quality of your own life by learning and applying the concepts of good customer relations. Considering the number of hours you spend on the job, you realize that a significant portion of your lifetime takes place at work! If your time with customers is pleasant, then your life is more enjoyable. Don't you agree?

There's a law that governs your success, no matter where you go or what you do. It's called the law of cause and effect. This law states that for every action there will always be a predictable reaction. The law of cause and effect applies to customer relations, too. When you make customers happy, you become happier yourself.

Three Legs of Customer Relations

There are three legs to good customer relations, and just like a three-legged stool, if one of the legs is missing, the stool will topple. The successful employee is the person who gives diligent attention to each of these three components.

1. Customer relations is human relations. It is a bond or connection between two or more people during which they exchange attention and communicate messages. Not all of the messages are communicated with words. Much of the communication is nonverbal and extraverbal. The quality of this communication determines the quality of the relationship between the employee and the customer.

2. The relationship that exists among employees in a business is extremely important to the customer's impression of the business. Customers have an intuitive ability to pick up on how well people are getting along with one another at your place of business. It's not the sort of thing that customers ponder and then reach logical conclusions about, but rather it's something they have feelings about.

Perhaps you've had the experience of visiting a store or restaurant where employees were not getting along with one another. What was the feeling that you had about being there? You probably would have enjoyed yourself more if the employees were happier.

3. Every person has a self-image, or mental picture, of who he or she is. The mental picture begins to develop early in the person's life and continues to change as the person discovers more about himself or herself. It's this self-image that dictates a person's behavior. It's as though a person's self-image becomes a script for the person to follow in any given situation.

A successful person has a wholesome self-image and simply acts out that self-image on life's stage. It's a well-known fact that we become who we think we are, so to improve our performances we must begin by developing mental pictures of ourselves as high performers. This book will help you develop your own mental picture of a person who is successful at customer relations.

Employees who accept themselves are said to have a positive self-image. I'm not speaking of vanity, self-centeredness, or feelings of superiority. I'm speaking of the person who recognizes his or her own self-worth, feels comfortable with who he or she is, and has reached a sense of self-acceptance. If you call to mind a particular person that you always enjoy visiting, chances are that same person has the kind of self-image we're discussing here. It is the same positive self-image that makes for good customer relations.

A large number of businesses are failing every day. The number is staggering. The list of reasons for failure in business could probably fill several pages, but most of them would boil down to just one reason: not enough customers! Without enough customers, the lifeblood of any business is cut off.

The smartest businesses soon learn the importance of repeat business, which means that these companies take steps to make certain that their customers are happy enough to return for additional purchases and to recommend the business to friends. For a business to succeed, its employees must realize that there is no such thing as a single sale. Every time a customer is satisfied, the likelihood for additional purchases is assured.

Chapter Three

ATTITUDES THAT HELP YOU GET AHEAD

As you consider your personal success with customers, you need to realize that your attitude is more important than your knowledge or experience. Although it's necessary to add to your knowledge every day, it's your attitude that will carry you to the top in any organization.

Here are some attitudes that will help you get ahead wherever you go.

1. Think Like the Boss

When you try to look at things through the eyes of your manager or supervisor, you accomplish two very important goals. You develop the kind of outlook that grooms you for advancement, and you become more valuable to your company. When you begin to think like the boss, it shows in your behavior, and it increases the amount of enjoyment you derive from your job.

Imagine, if you will, how your manager or supervisor looks at things. If you do this, it will be easy to understand how the boss sees things just a little differently from other employees.

Every decision you make as an employee will give you an opportunity to look at the situation through the eyes of the boss. If you ask yourself, "What would my decision be if I were owner of the company?" then you've taken your first step toward thinking like the boss.

For example, let's say a customer has a question about an item that is for sale. The employee who thinks like the boss is more tuned in to answering the customer's question in a way that shows the business is interested in earning the customer's satisfaction, goodwill, and loyalty. The employee who doesn't think like the boss is more apt to demonstrate a little more indifference toward the customer.

2. Be a Problem Finder

Anyone can be a problem solver, but the most valuable employees are the ones who are problem finders. Problem finders have their antennae up and are acutely aware of what's going on in their surroundings.

A surprising number of employees will notice but ignore things that go wrong. They'll walk right past something that needs to be fixed. They mean no harm; they just aren't thinking in terms of correcting things that need to be corrected.

Many business problems result in waste, inefficiency, and additional expense. Problem finders are important to a business because they save time and money, and they usually help the business find better methods for getting things done.

Let's say, for example, that an employee notices the company is running out of business stationery. The company's stationery isn't printed very often, so it's the sort of thing that doesn't get much attention. The problem finder, upon noticing that the stationery supply is getting low, mentions it to the person responsible for reordering it. The non-problem finder might also see that the supply is getting low but doesn't think to mention it to anyone. The non-problem finder thinks, "Stationery is not my job."

In your opinion, which employee is more valuable to the business?

3. Be 100 Percent Loyal

I encourage you to develop a loyal attitude toward your company and the people who run it. By doing so, you will become one of your company's most valuable assets.

No person can be for something and against it at the same time. The loyal employee is for the company, and the disloyal employee is against it.

I am dismayed by the number of employees who make negative comments about their employers. No employer is perfect. So what?

People who make negative comments about their places of employment hurt themselves in the long run because their attitudes diminish the quality of their lives, and they hurt their reputations in the eyes of those who hear their negative comments.

When customers hear disloyal comments from a company's employees, they begin to lose confidence in the company and are less apt to do business with it. As a result, the company suffers ... and when a company suffers, its employees suffer.

4. Be Enthusiastic!

I would be willing to bet that the 10 most successful people you know are also the 10 most enthusiastic.

Employees who are enthusiastic about jobrelated matters have an easier time getting things done, energize the workplace, earn the support and cooperation of fellow workers, and are less stressed at the end of the workday. Winners are enthusiastic!

Enthusiasm is a choice. For an experiment, the next time you arrive at your place of business, give your fellow workers a positive and enthusiastic greeting and put a little spring in your step. Chances are, your job will be more fun that day.

5. Do More Than You Get Paid For

Every job carries with it expectations for fulfillment. Many employees just do their jobs and let it go at that. Their attitude is, "I do what I get paid for. That's why the company hired me." These employees are fine folks, but they're only average.

Successful people are the ones who do just a little more than others expect. They stand out as "extra milers," and as a result, they rise to the top within any organization.

Ask yourself, "What are a few ways I can do a little more than is expected of me?" You'll be surprised at how easily the answer comes to you. You'll notice your extra-mile ideas don't require much more effort and energy. If you find ways to do just a little bit extra on the job, you will notice that your work is both more rewarding and more creative.

6. Fix the Problem, Not the Blame

When things go wrong (and they will), focus your energy on fixing the problem rather than on fixing the blame. People who spend their time blaming one another for mistakes just waste their time, and they diminish the quality of their work lives. You deserve better.

In companies where there's a lot of finger-pointing, employees tend to worry too much about making mistakes, and people who worry about making mistakes usually make more of them.

In a blame-ridden workplace people often hide their mistakes. For obvious reasons this creates additional problems, and it results in shoddy products and services. When this happens, customers, employers, and employees become the real losers.

7. Don't Talk About People

Have you ever been associated with a group of people whose major topic of conversation was other people? If so, you probably got the impression that you were the topic of conversation when you were away.

If this was the case, you then became cautious about what you said or did while with the group. If it was a work group, you then took fewer risks, and as a result you became less creative and innovative.

Today, more than ever before, companies need employees who are willing to take risks, use their imaginations, and come up with new ways of doing things. And this only happens in work environments in which employees are confident they are not being talked about behind their backs.

In addition, customers who visit a place of business don't like to hear employees talking about one another or about things that are going on among one another. It makes them feel uncomfortable, and if the comments are the least bit negative, it drives them away.

8. Be 100 Percent Honest

During the course of any workday, most employees have the opportunity to be less than 100 percent honest because they have access to the company's money, property, and merchandise.

I encourage you to maintain a high level of honesty at work. Do the "right thing because it's the right thing." I guarantee it'll pay off in big dividends for you sooner or later.

Occasionally an employee will think: "The company will never miss it. It's no big deal. I'll just go ahead and take it." Unwittingly the employee thereby steps over the line and becomes a thief.

People who live by one set of values among friends and family and by a compromised set of values at their places of employment are only fooling themselves. Stealing in one place is the same as stealing in another. It doesn't make sense to think otherwise.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Customer Signs Your Paycheckby Frank Cooper Copyright © 2010 by Frank Cooper. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: McGraw Hill
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0071632883
• ISBN 13: 9780071632881
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240