"Don't let your alligator mouth overload your hummingbird
ass."
- Phillip C. McGraw
Recommended
book of the week:
'Life
Strategies' - Stop making excuses! Do what
works, Do what matters. - Dr. Phillip C. McGraw,
published by Random House Australia
This
week's "moment of truth".
The
Power of a Smile.
'A
smile is the shortest distance between two people.'
-
I
don't know who said it, but whoever it was knew
exactly what they were talking about.
A
smile is also the shortest distance between you
and your customer.
Now
whilst my next statement may seem like a contradiction
in terms, I believe it is time that business got
serious about smiling.
Smiling
is an 'external' action, but as we have spoken of
before, the external is simply an outward manifestation
of the internal. The major challenge facing many
businesses is that staff have very little to smile
about.
In
my fifteen years of working with management teams,
the business reality that escapes many business
owners and managers is that 'happy people are productive
people'. There is an old Hebrew saying that states
'a fish starts rotting at the head first'. My reverse
version is that 'a business starts smiling at the
head first'.
A
happy and smiling demeanour displayed by management
is the first step in the process. This is closely
followed by creating a business environment where
staff are valued, respected, and given unfettered
responsibility to take care of the customer.
My
good friend Max Hitchins, 'The Hospitality Doctor',
reports that a colleague of his in a Hong Kong Hotel
achieves great results by having all staff, including
senior management, wear a badge which reads, "PLEASE
TELL ME IF I'M NOT SMILING." Now I hear some of
you saying, this is just a gimmick. Well it may
be a gimmick, but it works big time. The hotel continues
to report far greater active participation between
the guests and staff and after all, isn't that one
of the main keys to increased customer service.
I
for one am not against the use of gimmicks such
as badges to achieve desired ends, however I am
very much against management who think that a 'badge'
will fix an underlying problem. Badges will only
work if they are part of an overall culture where
customer service is regarded as the 'number one'
focus of all staff and where fun, satisfaction and
enjoyment is the rightful experience of every employee.
Happy
employees create happy customers. Happy customers
return again and again.
In
short, smile is cause, healthy bottom line is effect,
not the other way around.
Until
next week, stay true to yourself and your customers,
and remember that great service happens in the moment,
moment by moment.
