JOHN QUINCY ADAMS:

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

KENNETH BLANCHARD:

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

RALPH NADER:

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

JOHN WELCH:

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, 
passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.

I hope these leadership quotes have given you some important insights.

Most retail businesses in America believe they offer good customer service, but in reality the opposite is probably more accurate. Why? With the daily demands of performing repetitive tasks in a highly productive environment, employees are often oblivious to customers and their needs. Customer service is typically given lip service by managers, who view training and developing employees to provide an exceptional customer experience as a low priority in a cost-controlling, low-margin industry. Ironically, it is just such an investment in employee training and development that can increase sales exponentially. While operational efficiencies are essential to superior corporate performance, they should not hinder the company’s ability to gain a customer service advantage.

For a retailer to gain a customer service advantage over its competitors, a serious investment of resources to train employees is critical. It is also imperative to have in place vehicles that foster communication between the customer and store, including regular interaction between top management and customers. Why is this important? Because customer service is one thing, but exceptional customer service is another thing entirely. It’s not enough that every customer is acknowledged by every employee they meet on every shopping visit to the store. It’s not enough that every customer is sincerely greeted and thanked for their business when the transaction is complete. It’s about treating every customer in such a memorable way that when the transaction is complete, the customer tells someone else how great it was.

Of course, all of this must be weighed against the fact that attracting and retaining good employees is difficult. Part of the solution is building a team of employees who share a common vision and values. Indeed, weeding out employees who do not contribute to the vision and who do not perform their work in the context of the store’s stated values could add to an unstable staffing situation. Yet staffing problems cannot become an excuse for failing to deliver exceptional customer service. A core of focused employees working to achieve a common goal within the framework of common values is a powerful force that can, in the short term, compensate for a staffing deficiency.

Service companies sell a promise. The customer’s confidence is the most precious asset for any company that sells promises for a living. Superb execution of service day after day is the cornerstone of confidence building. Strengthening the customers’ confidence isn’t about making promises, but about keeping them. When a service company loses customer confidence, it loses everything. In services performed directly for customers, such as retailing, the service is inseparable from the people performing it. An inept clerk is an inept store. Conversely, exceptional employees with exceptional training will set a store apart from the competition and keep customers coming back.

Executives who direct employees to provide exceptional customer service without changing their own behavior or making operational changes to support high service standards are doomed to failure. Worse yet, if the company begins marketing an exceptional service program but doesn’t deliver on the promise, it can seriously damage the store’s reputation and undermine customer loyalty.

Rather, management must focus on taking steps, large and small, to nurture the philosophy of exceptional customer service in all aspects of the business so it becomes deeply rooted in the company culture. The best way to begin is "practice what you preach."

Success comes fastest to those managers who serve as role models for exceptional customer service—those who, through words and actions, strive to meet the highest service standards in day-to-day operations, promotions, and employee and customer interactions. When management begins living exceptional customer service, operational and marketing processes can be more effectively adjusted to support a cohesive program.

The checklist below will help you asses whether or not your management strategies are on track for creating a store culture of exceptional customer service. Review the "10 Essentials" and ask yourself if your company encourages similar practices and principles. If you are the rare manager who can answer yes to all 10, congratulations! You have clearly set the stage for exceptional service and are well on your way to developing loyal, long-term customer relationships. For the more typical manager with some no answers, consider these opportunities for improvement—a chance to fine-tune your management strategies and maximize your customer service efforts.

1. Executives personally and regularly serve customers.
When corporate executives regularly take part in serving the customer, they are doing more than simply helping to cement a relationship with the folks who pay the bills. The less obvious benefit is that by personally serving customers, executives who are the "visible standard" communicate that serving others is honorable and that customer service is the focus of corporate energy.

2. A visible customer feedback system gives immediate feedback to both employees and customers.
Highly visible feedback systems communicate to the customer not only that she can be heard, but also that the company actively solicits customer input. To be effective, feedback systems must get data immediately into the hands of the involved employees so the mental connection between behavior and consequence can be made. It is equally important to respond to the customer for taking the time to give input and to say in no uncertain terms that the company cares.

3. Stories about outstanding customer service are regular features of company communications and meetings.
Customer service guru Ken Blanchard talks about "legendary service." Legends are stories told over and over about brave and wonderful deeds. It is in the telling of stories that heroes are made. Telling service stories turns ordinary clerks into heroes. Building heroes encourages future service excellence.

4. Service training gets equal importance with technical and procedural training.
Getting it right technically almost doesn’t count if the customer also receives a poor perception of commitment to a continued relationship. Training that focuses solely on the technical, procedural aspects of the business is only half done.

5. Employees from entry level up are highly empowered to make service decisions.
It is of little value to talk service unless employees are also empowered to deliver exceptional service and rewarded for it.

6. Event selling is a key marketing tactic.
Mass marketing techniques take on added significance when they are supplemented by event marketing. Event marketing can be done on a grand scale, or it can be a one-on-one opportunity to deliver exceptional customer service.

7. Failure is relevant.
If you are not failing at least occasionally, you probably aren’t growing. First mistakes are free. Exceptional customer service involves an element of risk. Managers who are punished for straying beyond, "That’s the way it has always been done," are not likely to try new, possibly dynamite ideas.

8. Compensation is directly linked to contribution.
Companies in which innovation is not rewarded, in which longevity without contribution is prized, are not likely to make any moves that would make them either outstanding or simply stand out. Compensation tied to contribution is a powerful personal incentive.

9. Change is regarded as important, and challenging tradition is considered praiseworthy.
Success requires at least some internal friction. As long as those holding on to traditions of quality and service allow at least some freedom for creative marketing, corporate values will not be lost. Rather, they will evolve and survive. Encouraging new ideas lays the foundation for more effectively differentiating a store from its competitors.

10. Customers "play" with clerks and managers.
The most capable practitioners of exceptional customer service are constantly inviting others to "play." Play is another word for involvement. It is the company that involves the customer in every way, and creates solid relationships, that will thrive over the long term.

Exceptional customer service is essential to sustaining business success. When management leads by example and provides employees with effective tools and incentives, a company culture of exceptional customer service will take root, customer relationships will grow, and your company will thrive.

Achieving increased loyalty from customers and potential customers goes hand in hand with a focus on customer service. Delivering on a promise to provide outstanding and exceptional service to all customers, internal and external, is best accomplished when the promise becomes deeply rooted in the company culture. Providing exceptional customer service is aspirational. It begins with desire and is rewarded through the self-satisfaction of knowing you did the right thing by doing right for others. The benefits can be measured in small assurances or large returns. Smiling faces, exceptional morale, increased productivity, enhanced customer loyalty, and lower employee turnover rates are all tangible benefits of an exceptional customer service program.

Customer service has to do with the customer’s perception of the level of service she or he expects. Exceeding customers’ service expectations can be the defining factor in distinguishing a company from its competitors in the eyes and minds of consumers.

To customers, great service is an experience. It is the feeling that they take home with them after experiencing something positive, that “warm and fuzzy” they’re left with. Great customer service brings them back every time.

Customer service is one of the last great frontiers for a business to explore. The adventure is a journey fueled by purpose and desire. Great customer service is pure of heart and genuine. Its purpose is to serve the customer the best way possible, and its desire is to please customers in every way possible, and earn the right to do business with them again and again. It is a journey with no personal satisfaction until all customers are satisfied. The fundamental reason for every organization is to create a satisfied customer.

Achieving a reputation for great customer service does not happen by talking about it. A company’s reputation is determined by what customers say about it and how they describe it in their everyday lives. So listen to your customers. Give them exactly what they want, any way they want it. And invite them in to participate in their own service. Wise is he who listens, for in the end we all are customers. In the end, we all vote with our pocketbooks and with our efforts. And in the end it is he who listens who includes us, empowers us, and wins our loyalty.

Keeping customers satisfied is the first step to developing loyal, long-term friendships with your customers. A happy customer may be loyal; a delighted customer can be a friend for life. This is critical, especially when you consider the numbers. Countless surveys have shown that it costs about five times as much to get a new customer as it does to retain an existing one. Yet how much of a typical organization’s marketing budget is invested in keeping current customers, as opposed to attracting new ones. The more you extend a personal relationship to your customers, the more likely it will be that they will increase their patronage. Theoretically, it’s possible to double your sales without adding a single customer. All that must be done is to make your current customers feel so good about doing business with you that they come in twice as often.

Customer service has it roots in the neighborhood grocery store. In the early days, when supermarkets, UPC codes, and scanning cash registers were concepts from Star Trek, the corner store was usually run by Ma and Pa and the rest of the family. They lived by one simple rule in those day: The customer is king. Ma and Pa took pride in taking care of each and every customer that came in. These hearty grocers were linked to their communities. In rural areas, they felt the pinch along with their farmer customers when weather affected crops and livestock. These grocers were pioneers in creating value. They experienced and shared in the joys and hardships of each customer. They knew each and every adult and child by name, not because some training manual told them to but because they believed it was just “how people wanted to be treated.” Ma and Pa even knew their best customers’ favorite cut of meat or vegetable or cereal or coffee, and they did all this without the aid of computers and without invading the privacy of their customers.

Not much has changed. Even in this age of technological innovation, business is still about people. Today, just as then, the customer comes first (and is always right). Small-town merchants know their customers on a personal basis, they genuinely care about them as people, not just because it will improve margins or increase sales, but because it helps them do a better job. They believe in the golden rule of business: Treat others, as you would want to be treated. Then, because they are your customers, treat them just a little better yet.

5 Reasons Why A Guarantee Works

First, it pushes the entire company to focus on customers’ definition of good products/service, not an executive’s assumption. Second, it sets clear performance standards, which boost employees performance and morale. Third, it generates reliable data (through payouts) when performance is poor. Fourth, it forces an organization to examine its entire service-delivery system for possible failure points. Last, it builds customer loyalty, sales and market share.

What is a good guarantee? It is (1) unconditional, (2) easy to understand and communicate, (3) meaningful, (4) easy and painless to invoke, and (5) easy and quick to collect on.

Cheating. Fear of customers cheating is a big hurdle for some when considering offering guarantees. Sure, there will be cheats—the handful of customers who take advantage of a guarantee to get something for nothing. What they cost the company amounts to very little compared to the benefits derived from a strong guarantee. Too often management worries about the 1% of people who might cheat the company instead of the 99% who don’t.

*I have never thought of customers and their well-being in the same sentence. To me, the notion of customer well-being is thought provoking.

Well-being defined: a good or satisfactory condition of existence; a state characterized by health, happiness, and prosperity.

And some synonyms for well-being: Comfort, health, profit, prosperity, protection, safety, security, success, welfare, abundance, amenity, cheer, cheerfulness, contentment, convenience, coziness, enjoyment, exhilaration, facility, gratification, happiness, peacefulness, pleasure, relaxation, relief, rest, satisfaction, snugness, succor, sufficiency, warmth.

Looks like we’d have some very loyal customers if we can relate to their well-being.