Customers are crucial to any business and should be encouraged to know, like and trust our businesses. Are they however always right or are they sometimes even completely wrong? My wife and I were on board a flight that was delayed more than 30 minutes. The delay was due to 3 passengers that had obviously been drinking in the pub and had not been watching the time. They walked onto the plane making a huge raucous with huge bags that were clearly larger than airline standards. As they were late and their bags were massive, there was no space in the overhead bins for their bags. The airhostess offered to put luggage labels on their bags and to stow them in the hold. They were belligerent and refused to be inconvenienced. This was rich coming from three inebriated people that had already delayed the plane by 30 minutes. The captain came from the cockpit and tried to calm things down. The three people just got louder and louder. In the interim the co-pilot had called the police who led the three passengers off the flight, screaming that the airline knew nothing about customer service. I was really glad to hear the captain call after them that it was that very commitment to customer service that had forced him to remove them from the plane. They were inconvenience over 200 passengers.
This example is extreme, but I believe that this highlights the fact that the customer is most certainly not always right. The customer is most certainly important and we should always try to offer the best possible service to all our customers. As crucial as this service may be to maintain and grow our businesses, we must ensure that we do compromise ourselves, our staff or our other customers. The traditional model of business in which the customers’ needs are placed above the needs of all other stakeholders is out-dated. There are many examples of businesses that have thrived over the past few years by shaking things up a little by placing their team members at the top and putting customers second. Richard Branson and his group of extremely successful companies, use this philosophy to create highly profitable and extremely service driven businesses. This philosophy of putting their staff at the top of the hierarchy, proved very successful for Tony Hsieh of Zapos. He built an amazing service driven company that he eventually sold for $ 1 billion dollars. He achieved these amazing results by inspiring his team, making them his top priority. This philosophy turned his team into eager service providers that built a huge following of loyal customers.
If you want to build an amazing service driven business, you must stop tolerating unruly or rude customers. You must set boundaries and restrict how the world responds to you and your business. You do not need to tolerate irrational behaviour from anyone, especially customers. Empower your teams to refuse service or attention to people that do not deserve anything from your organization. I have been astounded by the improved results in my own company and the increased levels of customer service my customers now enjoy, since I have introduced this new philosophy. Since introducing this, I have seen a huge increase in standards. Customers have told me that they have seen a real change in the attitude of all my team members. My team members feel more valuable and are far more inspired and service driven. Since we have introduced these new standards and uncompromising principles, everyone has benefited. Give this philosophy a try. The results we have seen have far exceeded my expectations.
Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers
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