This practical book, now in it's fourth printing, is a perfect introduction to a profound understanding about people, relationships, and service. Kausen's light and pragmatic style makes easy reading without losing the deep impact. It is filled with delightful and amusing vignettes that demonstrate the direct connection between state of mind, our moment-to-moment experience, and our capacities to sustain fulfilling personal and professional relationships.
The medium for discussion is working with people in the sales and service sector ( but the message is much broader. The fifteen chapters covering different types of "difficult" people will benefit anyone in any type of relationship. So successful is this book at communicating the basics about "what makes people tick" that it is used as a textbook in universities.
CHAPTER 1 Why Customer Satisfaction? Satisfied customers are the life blood of any business.
Why does one retail business flourish while comparable businesses fail? Why do you enjoy dealing with certain establishments and avoid others? What is it beyond actions and words that shapes the customers experience?
We all know that a successful business must sell its product or services. People will buy a product or service if it fills their need and is priced appropriately, or if it's priced lower, and/or if they like doing business with you. We all know people who buy on impulse (needing to be spontaneous); others who put up with poor quality and service if the price is cheap enough; still others who buy from you regardless of price because they like doing business with you.
Successful businesses stay competitive by offering their customers some kind of extra. Whether the "extra" is tempting displays, cut prices, or good service, every business owner knows (or soon finds out) that taking care of the customer is top priority.
A recent survey by the National Retail Merchants Association pinpoints the reasons retailers lose Customers:
poor attitude of store personnel - 68%
unadjusted complaints - 14%
lower prices elsewhere - 9%
competition, moving or death - 9%
In other words, more than 8Q% of lost customers are lost because of store personnel's poor people skills. Another study Commissioned by the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs showed that only a third of dissatisfied Customers went back to the business that upset them. However, if their complaint was satisfactorily and rapidly resolved, nine out of ten returned.
It is widely accepted that an unhappy customer is likely to tell between six and nine other people about their bad experience, while a satisfied customer may recommend you to only three or four others. Clearly business owners cannot afford those talkative unhappy customers.
Price cutting and dramatic display are standard competition measures, but the basic principles of how to achieve an environment of good service are not widely understood. The once haughty banks have discovered that they can no longer expect Customers to walk in; they're busy devising ingenious lures to attract accounts and keep them. Restaurants are re-learning the value of service. Department stores, real estate offices, hairdressing salons, grocery stores, airlines, and even hospitals are all finding that customers care enough about the way they are treated to make the difference between profit and loss.
So the business owner who wants to succeed has the best reason in the world to make sure employees practice positive and effective customer service relations. The results are there in bottom-line profits that govern survival in the competitive market place.
But another dimension is even closer to home for those of us who deal with the public. The enjoyment you yourself get from your work depends on your understanding of people and how they function When difficult and demanding customers hassle you, your day stretches to agonizing length. Chances are your upset feelings go home with you to ruin your evening as weir But when you handle people with ease and skill, you feel more energy at the end of the day than when you started, and go to sleep looking forward to the next day,
The ancient definition still holds: customer service is taking care of your customers in such a way that they prefer to do business with you. The less well recognized fact is that insisting on mechanical smiles and empty phrases ("Have a good day!") is NOT the effective way to do it. Customer service cannot be faked.
Unless those who serve you really care how customers are treated, their phony friendliness is more apt to irritate than please. And it backfires. Those waiters, clerks and tellers inevitably come to hate their work.
It's easy enough to serve Customers well when they are pleasant and know exactly what they want. It's the angry, critical, or undecided customer who tests your skill.
The secret of successful customer service lies not as much in what you do as in how you see people and how you handle the dynamics of the transaction. When you gain a deeper understanding of what's going on you'll find dealing with even the most difficult customer an invigorating opportunity instead of a trial.
Serving nice people is a pleasure, you say, but what about difficult customers? That's when the work becomes hard.... Successful customer satisfaction is the result of a service state of mind in the employee, and a pro-human relations climate in the organization.. both must have an enlightened perspective.
