Innovation

No matter what product, service, or process that you work with, plan to make it the very best. Constantly look for the best product or the best way to provide products and services.

It starts with listening to your customer and striving to constantly providing excellent products and service. Look how far mankind has come though innovation and invention. We still have a lot of work to do. We still need to find better ways to do things and provide better service to our customers.

According to the book, Game Changer, innovation is a complicated and carefully managed process. Make sure that your company is including innovation in what you have to offer to your customers. That is true even if your company is just you.

According to Brian Tracy, we really should consider ourselves as a company of one. Our employer just happens to be our biggest, most important client. Look for ways to make your company better and first.

Look for innovation.

Imagine

Imagine if you carried on every day as if everyone was your customer...

What would it be like if you approached every person you encountered during your day as if your income depended on how your treated each and every person. Well, a lot more than your income does depend on it. Your reputation, likability, and perhaps your very happiness depend on it.

Consider and reconsider how your interact with every single person you see and talk with today and every day. If you treated everyone like a customer, you will get great results.

Imagine, deriving happiness from service.

Paint vs. Aluminum Siding

I recently drove by a man painting his house. I mean that he was painting the exterior.

Do you remember when most people painted the exterior of their house?

This got me to thinking. Has aluminum siding contributed to a fundamental change in our culture? Because of the fact that we put this stuff that is supposed to look like wood on the exterior walls of our houses, we may have become less connected with our homes and our environment.

Furthermore, by putting this false wood on our houses, we have created more descretionary time. Just what we needed.

I am not saying that I want to go back to painting the house. I am just asking if the conversion of over the past thirty years has made a fundamental difference in our culture.

It sure seems like it.

Flexibility

In order to provide great customer service you need to be flexible. The same service does not apply to everyone, the same follow-up is not going to work with every customer.

The same greeting at the counter will not work with every customer. You need to be flexible. You need to read your customer and react accordingly. How ofen are you annoyed by a clerk or counter worker who replies with the very standard and required greeting, thank you for calling _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. Thank you for shopping at _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. While these are intended to be nice, they are not customized.

Instead, try, "It appears that you like our _ _ _ _ _ _, have you considered our _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .

You fill in the blanks. It simply means that you should be aware and tuned into your customer so that you can react in a customized way.

Be flexible when it comes to customer service.

Service

We often hear in business about providing great service or serving the customer. To be successful in any business, serving the customer is critical.

I just started listening to an audio program titled "Delivering Knock Your Socks Off Service." Based on what I have heard so far, I like it. There is a lot of practical common sense advice given on the first of five CDs.

Furthermore, I have heard many stories about customer service that should be shared. One that comes to mind frequently is the Wal-Mart cheer. According to the author of "Built to Last," it goes like this. Sam Walton gathered his employees for a storewide meeting and it begins with this cheer.

Give me a W --- W
Give me an A --- A
Give me an L --- L
Give me a sguiggly --- and the people all sqiggle and twist indicating a squiggle
Give me an M --- M
Give me an A --- A
Give me an R --- R
Give me a T --- T

What does it spell, WAL-MART

Who's number one?

(and now here is the key part and my main point for telling you this)

Who's number one?

THE CUSTOMER!!!

In a culture where the customer is truly first, a formula for success is established. No matter what profession you have, there are customers. If you put them first in your planning, first in your attention, and (most importantly) first in service, your company will succeed.