The above quote came from a man who knew better than most the purpose of business and how that knowledge integrates with Customer Relationships. With out the creation of customers there is no business. Drucker also stood flat footed and expressed his views about everything from management to Wall Street.
No one said it better than Peter Drucker... "The purpose of a business is to create a customer" and I firmly agree.
Peter Drucker was one of the world's foremost thinkers. His concepts were thought provoking and his insight was keen. And although Peter Drucker is dead he still speaks. Please take the time now to read about this impressive man.
http://www.cgu.edu/pages/3764.asp
http://www.cgu.edu/pages/3782.asp
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2005-11-11-drucker_x.htm?csp=23&RM_Exclude=aol
Friday, November 11, 2005
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Give Your Customers A Front Seat...In honor of a Great Woman - Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks is an amazing woman.
Her life reflects the grace and power of why customers should take a stand. She is a type of customer that refuses to sit in the back of the bus when she's paid to sit in the front and could anyone blame her.
If you paid the same fair as all the other customers wouldn't you want to have the same great experience? Well Rosa Parks experienced a classic example of what happens when we forget that the customer is King.
Now a whole nation entrenched in bad customer service had to take a back seat. You see the customer refused to sit in the back of the bus after a long hard day at work and who would blame her. She walks past the front row seats which are designated "Whites Only" and sits in the middle of the bus. She knows that if the front seats get full and whites enter the bus she will have to give up her seat and sit in the back.
One things for sure Rosa Parks knew that all customers should be treated with dignity and respect. But she was arrested and treated worse than someone who did not pay, as if she had snuck on the back of the bus. But that's not what she was trying to do. Rosa Parks just wanted the bus driver to leave her alone and allow the customer to sit where she freely wanted to sit.
The bus driver should have been thinking (we love to see our customers smile). He should have said "Mrs. Parks welcome aboard today! You look a little tired. So why don't you just have a seat near the front so you don't have to walk so far when it's time for you to get off. And here's a bottle of water".
But can you believe it was against the law for Blacks to sit in the middle section seats if all the "White Only" seats were taken in the front? The only seats they could sit in with out having to get up were the seats in the back of the bus.
Well if there is a front seat available for your customer never give them a back seat...unless they ask for the seat in the back. And never make laws or policies that will eventually treat customers unfairly.
That day Rosa Parks only wanted to experience Great Customer Service and a wonderful ride as she looked out the window. But that was far from what she received that day. When she refused to sit in the back and chose a seat near the front of the bus, she was removed by police.
Can you imagine paying the same fare as everyone who got on the bus that day and then being verbally disrespected by the bus driver? Well I can't imagine for the life of me how humiliated Mrs. Parks must have felt that day. And it wasn't the first time that the bus driver barked out orders to his customer to move. but I'm so glad she said enough of this bad customer service I'm not going to the back of the bus today. In honor of Rosa Parks I'd like to say we all have a lot to learn from the life of this ordinary but extraordinary woman.
Yesterday Mrs. Parks casually slipped into a place in history and today she grasped the attention of the entire world. And her life story is a customer service lesson in why it's important to "Serve The Customer With Passion".
So the moral of the lesson is the next time you're thinking of fussing at your customer and then asking them to take a seat in the back... wise up and "Give the Customer a front seat".
PS
to learn more about this extraordinary woman take a peek at these links.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/rosa/
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/28/parks.capitol.ap/
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/31/rosa.parks.ap/
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/30/rosa.parks.ap/
Her life reflects the grace and power of why customers should take a stand. She is a type of customer that refuses to sit in the back of the bus when she's paid to sit in the front and could anyone blame her.
If you paid the same fair as all the other customers wouldn't you want to have the same great experience? Well Rosa Parks experienced a classic example of what happens when we forget that the customer is King.
Now a whole nation entrenched in bad customer service had to take a back seat. You see the customer refused to sit in the back of the bus after a long hard day at work and who would blame her. She walks past the front row seats which are designated "Whites Only" and sits in the middle of the bus. She knows that if the front seats get full and whites enter the bus she will have to give up her seat and sit in the back.
One things for sure Rosa Parks knew that all customers should be treated with dignity and respect. But she was arrested and treated worse than someone who did not pay, as if she had snuck on the back of the bus. But that's not what she was trying to do. Rosa Parks just wanted the bus driver to leave her alone and allow the customer to sit where she freely wanted to sit.
The bus driver should have been thinking (we love to see our customers smile). He should have said "Mrs. Parks welcome aboard today! You look a little tired. So why don't you just have a seat near the front so you don't have to walk so far when it's time for you to get off. And here's a bottle of water".
But can you believe it was against the law for Blacks to sit in the middle section seats if all the "White Only" seats were taken in the front? The only seats they could sit in with out having to get up were the seats in the back of the bus.
Well if there is a front seat available for your customer never give them a back seat...unless they ask for the seat in the back. And never make laws or policies that will eventually treat customers unfairly.
That day Rosa Parks only wanted to experience Great Customer Service and a wonderful ride as she looked out the window. But that was far from what she received that day. When she refused to sit in the back and chose a seat near the front of the bus, she was removed by police.
Can you imagine paying the same fare as everyone who got on the bus that day and then being verbally disrespected by the bus driver? Well I can't imagine for the life of me how humiliated Mrs. Parks must have felt that day. And it wasn't the first time that the bus driver barked out orders to his customer to move. but I'm so glad she said enough of this bad customer service I'm not going to the back of the bus today. In honor of Rosa Parks I'd like to say we all have a lot to learn from the life of this ordinary but extraordinary woman.
Yesterday Mrs. Parks casually slipped into a place in history and today she grasped the attention of the entire world. And her life story is a customer service lesson in why it's important to "Serve The Customer With Passion".
So the moral of the lesson is the next time you're thinking of fussing at your customer and then asking them to take a seat in the back... wise up and "Give the Customer a front seat".
PS
to learn more about this extraordinary woman take a peek at these links.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/rosa/
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/28/parks.capitol.ap/
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/31/rosa.parks.ap/
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/30/rosa.parks.ap/
Sunday, October 30, 2005
"TOP Secret" Customer Service
Well if you haven't heard of "Top Secret" Customer Service chances are you're not performing it. What's even worse you're losing customers and you don't even know it. There's nothing more dissappointing than having customers and losing them.
I don't know how you feel but when I'm losing customers because of something I'm not doing that's not a good thing. But everyday hundreds of customers walk out and never come back. Yes they leave what seems to be great companies to go to their competitors for one simple reason.
Now it's really up to you to consider if their leaving your company...the one organization you believe is performing "Knock Out" Customer Service on a daily basis. Well before you close the book on whether customers are leaving your organization for this one small customer failure consider this. Does the company I work for perform "Top Secret" Customer Service?
My mentor and friend Brian Tracy would be the first to tell you that taking care of your customer should be the primary focus of your business.
So what is "Top Secret" Customer Service? And how can you tell you're missing it? Well I'll answer both of those questions for you but first let me tell you this. I had more than a few jobs where customer service was not a priority of the company. I'm not saying that it wasn't important. I'm just saying that it really wasn't at the top of the priority list for some of the companies I worked for. Especially for those companies who had business just chasing them all the way to the front door of their company.
"Top Secret" Customer Service is simply this. The T-O-P in "Top Secret" is an acronym that means...Teams Overcoming Problems...that's "Top Secret" Customer Service.
Whenever your company focuses on taking care of your customer from a Team work approach that's "Top Secret" Customer Service. That's the surprise hidden element in your customer service that only well oiled corporations perform consistently and continously like clock work.
All the other companies wish they had what your organization has. And that keeps your customers returning over and over again without question for the rest of their lives. Most organizations perform their duties as a project in other words requiring the assistance of others with in their corporate body. Small businesses do this same thing almost hourly through out the day using partnerships with outside vendors. These relationships are the teams that make businesses run and repeat purchases occur systematically and repetitiously.
This is the "Top Secret" Customer Service you need to activate with in your organization. If you already have a team approach to doing business this is the customer service you need to inspect daily beause if it's not "Inspected" it's not "Expected". Thanks for your time and I wish you the best Customer Service ever.
Your Servant,
Deremiah, *CPE
PS
If your Team is not overcoming problems than you can bet your companies losing valuable clients that could grow your business exponentially
I don't know how you feel but when I'm losing customers because of something I'm not doing that's not a good thing. But everyday hundreds of customers walk out and never come back. Yes they leave what seems to be great companies to go to their competitors for one simple reason.
Now it's really up to you to consider if their leaving your company...the one organization you believe is performing "Knock Out" Customer Service on a daily basis. Well before you close the book on whether customers are leaving your organization for this one small customer failure consider this. Does the company I work for perform "Top Secret" Customer Service?
My mentor and friend Brian Tracy would be the first to tell you that taking care of your customer should be the primary focus of your business.
So what is "Top Secret" Customer Service? And how can you tell you're missing it? Well I'll answer both of those questions for you but first let me tell you this. I had more than a few jobs where customer service was not a priority of the company. I'm not saying that it wasn't important. I'm just saying that it really wasn't at the top of the priority list for some of the companies I worked for. Especially for those companies who had business just chasing them all the way to the front door of their company.
"Top Secret" Customer Service is simply this. The T-O-P in "Top Secret" is an acronym that means...Teams Overcoming Problems...that's "Top Secret" Customer Service.
Whenever your company focuses on taking care of your customer from a Team work approach that's "Top Secret" Customer Service. That's the surprise hidden element in your customer service that only well oiled corporations perform consistently and continously like clock work.
All the other companies wish they had what your organization has. And that keeps your customers returning over and over again without question for the rest of their lives. Most organizations perform their duties as a project in other words requiring the assistance of others with in their corporate body. Small businesses do this same thing almost hourly through out the day using partnerships with outside vendors. These relationships are the teams that make businesses run and repeat purchases occur systematically and repetitiously.
This is the "Top Secret" Customer Service you need to activate with in your organization. If you already have a team approach to doing business this is the customer service you need to inspect daily beause if it's not "Inspected" it's not "Expected". Thanks for your time and I wish you the best Customer Service ever.
Your Servant,
Deremiah, *CPE
PS
If your Team is not overcoming problems than you can bet your companies losing valuable clients that could grow your business exponentially
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