It's the Customer, Stupid! E-Book

Michael A Aun

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 308

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Ruthlessly focus on what's convenient for customers, not what's convenient for you Ninety percent of dissatisfied clients will take their business elsewhere and never tell you why. However, ninety-five percent will become loyal customers again if their needs and problems are addressed and remedied. Speaker and salesperson Michael Aun shares these secrets and many more in It's the Customer, Stupid!, a guide to growing any business by gaining new customers, and, more importantly, by keeping the ones you have happy and coming back for more. This fun-to-read book explains common myths about sales and customer satisfaction, starting with the fact that most businesses think they're customer-centric, but they just aren't. * Get proven steps to REALLY put your customer at the center of what you do * Distinguish your business from the competition by understanding the principle that good sales ARE good service * Author received the Toastmasters "World Championship of Public Speaking" award and is also a full-time businessman practicing what he preaches daily It's the Customer, Stupid! reveals key actions that will shake up your business approach. Your customers will love you for them, and you'll love the effect on sales!

Leseprobe

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: Unhappy Customers Will Not Only Fire You but They Will Tell Others!

Chapter 2: Great Customer Service Is About Getting the Client’s Feedback

Take a Lesson from Milliken & Company

Great Customer Service Is About Great Training

You Get the Behavior You Reward

Great Client Feedback Will Help Dictate Great Customer Service, if You Bother to Listen!

Chapter 3: Fix the Problem; Don’t Fix the Blame

Stop the Frame

The Cost of Lost Opportunity

Ninety Percent of Customers Make Decisions Based on Service

Why Not Empower the Customer Service Rep?

The Cost of Making the Client’s Life Difficult

Chapter 4: Always Give Them a Baker’s Dozen

GEO Prism’s Mayday

Baker’s Dozen

Creative Thinking

A Journal for the Journey

Great Customer Service Starts with Even Greater Communication Skills

You Need a Mentor

Our Training Dictates Our Values and Behavior

Chapter 5: Trust, Once Violated, Negates a Relationship

Taxpayers Are Customers, Too

Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven; Nobody Wants to Die!

We Need a Customer Rebellion

Making Life Difficult Seems to Be the Goal of Some

Trust, Once Violated, Negates a Relationship

Profit versus Prophet

Chapter 6: Somebody Has to Take Out the Trash!

Client Retention Should Be the Model, Not the Exception

All I Want Out of Life Is an Unfair Advantage

Why Do Your Clients Fire You?

Somebody Has to Take Out the Trash

Put Them All on Commission

Fix the Problem, Not the Blame

Chapter 7: You Are Not the Enemy but Part of the Solution

Mr./Ms. Client . . . You Are a Liar and a Thief!

The Person Asking the Questions in the Interview Process Controls the Interview

Let Them Know That You Are Not the Enemy

Making a Mountain Out of a Molehill

The Irritation Factor

Minimizing Delays . . . Feel, Felt, Found

Train the Client on How to Be a Better Client

Chapter 8: Communication Skills Mean Everything; Join Toastmasters or Dale Carnegie

What’s in It for Me?

The Six Ps

Speak with Conviction

The K-I-S-S Formula

Timing

Delivery Is Critical

Dramatize the Story

Chapter 9: Prophet versus Profit . . . Why Not Both?

Prophet versus Profit

Chapter 10: Perception Is Reality

Listen to the Criticism of Others, but Don’t Support Them

Chapter 11: Be a Hero or “Shero” . . . Fix the Problem . . . and Then Fire Whomever Caused It!

The Minimum Shaft Job

Customer Being Proactive

Thank-You Notes Pay Huge Dividends

Thank-You Notes Contain Four Simple Ingredients

Chapter 12: Nothing Takes the Place of Good Manners

Fire the Client

Chapter 13: Client Loyalty Is Earned, Not Given

Loyalty Is a Derivative of Ethics

Loyalty Is a Two-Way Street

Trust, Earned Over Years, Can Be Destroyed in Seconds

Happy Clients Want Intimacy in Their Relationship

Chapter 14: Nibble Away at customer Solutions

It Starts with Asking Great Questions

Fair Enough?

It’s Not Surgery That Kills; It’s Delayed Surgery

Chapter 15: You Can Only Be Responsible for One-Half of a Relationship—Yours!

Chapter 16: Lead the Client to Solutions

Napoleon the Strutter: The Bantam Rooster

No-No Ned: The Never-Never Client

Hard-Nosed Harry: The Tough Guy

Manny-the-Milquetoast: Timid Tommy

Jerry the Jester: The Wisecrack Artist

Norris the Naïve: The Untried, Inexperienced Client

Middle-Aged Max: The Largest Customer Base

Albert the Aged: The Older Prospect

The Dean of Mean: The Forceful Buyer

Mouthy Malcolm: The Talkative Customer

Dobie the Doubter: The Skeptical Client

Flawless Francis: The Precision Prospect

Apathetic Alex: The Indifferent Prospect

Headstrong Henry: The Stubborn Prospect

Oscar the Orator: The Opinionated Client

Sassy Stanley: The Sardonic Slob

Louie the Liar: Pinocchio

Gabby the Gossip: The Talker

Painless Peter: The Easy Buyer

Right-Wing Ralph: The Conservative Prospect

Analytical Andy: The Logical Client

Buford the Bewildered: The Confused Customer

Toby the Tearjerker: The Passionate Client

Let’s-Make-Him-an-Offer Lance: The Bargain Buyer

Microscopic Melvin: The Rational Buyer

Wishy-Washy Woody: The Indecisive Client

Ornery Olin: The Obstinate Buyer

Chapter 17: Find Out What the Customers Need and Give It to Them

Find Out What the Customer Needs and Then Give It to Them

Chapter 18: Find Out What Others Are Doing and Do Something Different!

Chapter 19: Become a Mentor to Your Client; Coach and Counsel!

Chapter 20: Winning Is Never Final and Losing Is Never Fatal

It’s the Service, Stupid!

Values Drive Decisions

Chapter 21: Master Your Time or It Will Enslave You

Snail Mail

E-Mail

People Dropping in on You, Virtually or in Person

Have You Got a Minute?

Myths about Needing or Wanting More Time

We Are Our Own Enemy

Six Quick Tips to Maximize Your Time

Learn to Prioritize

Michael Aun Priority Index

Analyzing Your Calendar

Chapter 22: If You Pay Peanuts, You Get Monkeys!

Train Your People Better, and You Will Get Better Results!

The Cat Who Sat on the Hot Stove

Chapter 23: Mentor Your Client

The Sweet Title of Coach

Great Mentors Envision Success in Others

Envision Success! Keep Your Head Down and Follow Through!

Winning Isn’t Final; Losing Isn’t Fatal

Chapter 24: Customer-Driven Leadership Is About Advocacy and Mentoring

Some Common Misconceptions about Customer-Driven Leadership

Chapter 25: The Old Way Is Rarely the Best Way Because Change Is Constant

Throw Out the Old Way!

It Applies to Every Aspect of Life Today

Don’t Worry about What You Are Going to Be When You Grow Up; It Hasn’t Been Invented Yet!

Supply versus Demand and Diminishing

Chapter 26: Respond to the Client Even If You Cannot Provide an Immediate Solution

Perception Is Reality

Be Different!

Chapter 27: Bad News Travels at the Speed of Light

Learn the Jargon

Chapter 28: Nine Rules That Drive Client Loyalty

Rule 1

Rule 2

Rule 3

Rule 4

Rule 5

Rule 6

Rule 7

Rule 8

Rule 9

Chapter 29: Eight Rules to Overcome Fear of Failure

Rule 10

Rule 11

Rule 12

Rule 13

Rule 14

Rule 15

Rule 16

Rule 17

Chapter 30: Six Rules of Service-Driven Leadership

Rule 18

Rule 19

Rule 20

Rule 21

Rule 22

Rule 23

Chapter 31: Five Rules That Drive Customer Achievement and Success

Rule 24

Rule 25

Rule 26

Rule 27

Rule 28

Chapter 32: Client-Driven Leadership Is About Removing Roadblocks

Rule 29

Rule 30

Rule 31

Rule 32

Chapter 33: Six Rules That Drive Client Results

Rule 33

Rule 34

Rule 35

Rule 36

Rule 37

Rule 38

Chapter 34: Ten Rules that Drive Client Decisions and Loyalty

Rule 39

Rule 40

Rule 41

Rule 42

Rule 43

Rule 44

Rule 45

Rule 46

Rule 47

Rule 48

About the Author

Index

Praise for It’s the Customer, Stupid!

“There’s no need to buy a dozen books on customer service. Just buy one—this one! Michael Aun gets to the heart of what it takes to win and keep today’s demanding customer.”

—Joe Calloway author ofBecoming a Category of One

“Michael Aun is terrific on and off the platform . . . entertaining and educating! He’s excelled himself in this magnificent book.”

—Ed Foreman, U. S. Congressman (Retired), Texas and New Mexico

“Success in business is all about loyal and happy customers. Michael Aun is a genius when it comes to customer relationships. Use his ideas and you will find success.”

—Jeff Slutsky, author ofStreet Fighter Marketing Solutions

“Michael Aun is right aun target with this ausome book, and the one thing aul businesses forget—to auways focus aun the customer. Right aun, Aun!”

—Ronald P. Culberson, MSW, CSP, Humorist and author ofIs Your Glass Laugh FullandMy Kneecap Seems Too Loose

“Michael Aun describes why your most important goals are your customers’ goals; how sold customers can become your most abused customers; and why keeping current customers is easier than developing new ones.”

—Dr. Larry Baker, CSP; Internationally Known Management Consultant, Coach, Speaker, Author, and Publisher

“Michael Aun is the king of customer service! Master the fine art of impeccable customer service that leads to loyalty and trust through his masterful ideas. This book is packed with ideas, concepts, and testaments that will transform the way you operate your business.”

—Dr. Nido Qubein, President, High Point University; Chairman, Great Harvest Bread Co.

“Astounding customer service is the best strategy for competing in today’s marketplace. Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game, astounding customer service wins the game. It’s the Customer, Stupid! is the blueprint for exceeding customer expectations and creating lifetime customers who are raving fans.”

—Dr. Tony Alessandra, author ofThe NEW Art of Managing PeopleandThe Platinum Rule

“Michael Aun’s newest book gets to the point very quickly: Focus on your customers needs. Listen, listen, listen, and then listen some more. Great wisdom can be mined in 34 chapters. Buy this book! Read this book! And apply the time-valued rules. It’s a winner!”

—Dr. Peter Legge, OBC, CSP, CPAE; Author, Businessman, and Professional Speaker

“Michael Aun’s It’s the Customer, Stupid! will inspire you to find opportunities to build your business with the wisdom from a man who knows how to do it. Be smart and read this book!”

—Giovanni Livera, President, TimeCompass, Inc.; author ofLive A Thousand Years

“Michael Aun provides extraordinarily wise counsel for everyone smart enough to follow his advice for positively impacting customers. Anyone who desires to remove the ‘bag filled with stupid customer activities’ will be wise to embrace Michael Aun’s proven strategies of providing lifetime service to all customers and clients. Based on his successful career of attracting, serving, and keeping customers, Michael Aun offers 34 profound ways to engage his customer based success. As we say, ‘Listening Pays in Many Ways!,’ and the wise will listen to Michael Aun.”

—Dr. Lyman K. “Manny” Steil, CEO, International Listening Leadership Institute; author ofListening Leaders: The Ten Golden Rules to Listen, Lead and Succeed

Copyright © 2011 by Michael Aun. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Aun, Michael, 1949-

It’s the customer, stupid! : 34 wake-up calls to help you stay client-focused/Michael Aun.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-90739-9 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-118-00126-4 (ebk)

ISBN 978-1-118-00127-1 (ebk)

ISBN 978-1-118-00128-8 (ebk)

1. Customer services. 2. Customer relations—Management. I. Title.

HF5415.5.A96 2011

658.8′12—dc22

2010034667

Foreword

Michael Shares His Wealth

In today’s “What’s in it for me right now?” world, Michael Aun stands as a successful person who recognizes that “right now” is not as powerful as “day-by-day.” Consistency wins the race. And consistency is only one of Michael’s success attributes. Family man, high ethics, and dogmatic to achieve and be positive from the first minute of the morning until his head hits the pillow at night, are some others.

His engaging online publication, “Behind the Mike,” is a misnomer. Michael Aun is always out in front. It’s the reason he has achieved so much in his career, and it’s the reason he will continue to achieve. I always read it from beginning to end. It’s loaded with insight, humor, and wisdom.

In this book, It’s the Customer, Stupid!, Michael goes to great lengths to explain the validity and the monetary value of customers, repeat customers, loyal customers, and referred customers. Because everyone is looking to make sales, build business, increase profits, and become successful now, this book addresses the gold in your own backyard that you are not mining. Your customers. Better stated, your loyal customers.

Michael has succeeded in the insurance business, which in my opinion is the most difficult business to achieve over the long term. In a market segment where no one wants to meet with the seller, Michael was always able to meet with the buyer, and he didn’t just make sales, he established relationships and over the years has kept a fiercely loyal customer base. Not just renewals, but also referrals.

In this book Michael explains the why, the how, and the how much.

Think about your own customer base or your own client base.

How do they feel about you?

How do they talk about you?

What do they mean to you? (But more important, what do you mean to them?)

How valuable are you?

How believable are you?

How available are you?

And how trustworthy are you perceived to be?

All of these qualities ensure success, but not one without the other. And all of these qualities are Michael Aun qualities.

Everyone—including you—is looking for today’s answers. An idea, a direction, a plan. This book is loaded with them. He’s not saying, “Go back to basics.” He’s saying, “Here are the fundamentals. Here’s how I handled them, here’s how I mastered them, and here’s what you need to do. Now!”

We’re living in a time of doubt, a time of uncertainty, and a time of distrust. This book provides a road map for gaining these critical fundamental attributes while others are losing them.

NOTE WELL: As you read this book you would be well advised to grab a highlighter, read slowly, and make notes in the margins. And if you are persistent enough, and consistent enough, to turn those notes into actions, then you will have maximized the value of this book.

It’s funny, when I first saw the title of this book, I immediately thought about how many companies I have talked to, and how many people, especially salespeople and service people, I have spoken with. When they talk about customers they say, “It’s the stupid customer!”

Blaming is so easy in this world at this time. Taking responsibility is so much harder. But believe it or not it’s safer, and more rewarding, for both the customer and for you.

Everyone has an idea, philosophy, or strategy about what customers are all about. Michael Aun has a passion for what customers are all about. And as you look through the table of contents you will find that he also has an understanding of what customers are all about.

It is from his lifetime of experience that you will gain new insights about the critical customer service topics in today’s markets, including word-of-mouth marketing, word-of-mouth advertising, finding out what the customer really thinks, giving the customer more than they were expecting, having a service heart, problem resolution, and the all-important skills of communication.

As a high-level Toastmaster, Michael has mastered the art and the science of communicating to a group and an individual, as husband and wife or a thousand husbands and wives.

This book also tackles the sensitive subjects of taking responsibility, advocacy, time management, speed of response, and bad news.

The cool part about bad news is that Michael shows you how to turn it into great news and provides insight that will help you understand how bad news occurs, how fast it travels, and the magic of converting it to good news.

As if all this weren’t enough, there is the sensitive topic of results (or should I say measuring results). Michael’s leadership both demands results and commands results. Michael’s style and leadership ensure results and do it using the voice of his customer, included with his own it is those collaborative qualities.

He doesn’t “have” customers; he has fiercely loyal customers. They are an integral part of his success and Michael shows you how to make them an integral part of yours.

This book delivers Michael’s experience as a salesman, a manager, a speaker, a businessman, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a person of character. It’s authentic. And Michael’s authenticity is transferable—to you.

I’ve known Michael for nearly 20 years. We are fellow members of the National Speakers Association Hall of Fame. In fact, he was the one who nominated me. In order to respect someone’s words and honor someone’s deeds, you have to respect the person, and Michael Aun is the shining example of what to do in business, in family, and in life.

Jeffrey Gitomer

Author of The Little Red Book of Selling

Acknowledgments

Special thanks have to be given to Toastmasters International and my local Osceola Club 1841 in Kissimmee, Florida, and especially Nancy Street, who helped edit this manuscript. Without Toastmasters, my entire business and speaking career would not have been possible.

I want to thank my family as well. My late parents, Alice and Michael Aun, brought 11 children into this world and nurtured them with good habits and discipline. Any success I have enjoyed in my life is a by-product of their love, care, and encouragement.

I want to thank the most incredible salespeople on the planet, my extraordinary granddaughters, Ashley and Ava, who are only four and two at the time this goes to press. They are the greatest salespeople I have ever known, masterful at asking questions and never taking “no” for answer. Neither have a clue what the word “no” means. They do understand the power of “why?”

The most important people in my life are my wife, Christine, and our three sons, Cory, Jason, and Christopher. I learned many great principles from my amazing sons. The students became the teachers.

Jason, who is a microbiologist, taught me the incredible power of self-discipline as he and his twin brother, Cory, became national champion weightlifters.

Cory taught me the importance of being a mentor and coach for other people. He is an astonishing athletic coach and teacher of biology and the sciences. He brings fun and education into his classroom and onto the playing fields, helping children to love the sciences and athletics. His fellow coaches and teachers as well as his students and athletes sing his praises, which is a powerful customer service testimonial.

My youngest son, Christopher, taught me the noteworthy gift of “giving” by providing care for others. Like his mother, he is a registered nurse. The nature of that profession is the greatest testimonial to customer service that exists. He inspires me with the good work he and other medical professionals do every day.

I am also moved by the good works done by the medical staff of the St. Thomas Aquinas Free Medical Clinic in my church in St. Cloud, Florida. The 75 doctors and 150 nurses and other volunteers donate their time, talent, and treasure so that the poor can have health care; that is truly a remarkable tribute to what servant leadership is all about.

Finally and most importantly, I want to thank the most important person in my life, my wonderful wife, Christine. She has taught me how to love and care for others though it might not always be easy to do so. She always admonishes me to “Be nice and everything else takes care of itself.” She never had one day of customer service training, but in my mind, she knows more about caring for a customer than any person I have ever met. She is the true motivation for It’s the Customer, Stupid! and is the reason for any success it will enjoy. I love her more than life itself.

God bless all who have touched my life to make this book possible.

CHAPTER 1

Unhappy Customers Will Not Only Fire You but They Will Tell Others!

Dissatisfied customers tell an average of 10 other people about their bad experience. Twelve percent tell up to 20 people.

Every company on the planet talks about rendering dynamite customer service. Some like to refer to their customer service departments as “Customer Care Centers.” Ironically, however, the cuffs often don’t match the collar. Although these organizations espouse the great respect they have for their clients, they build multiple walls around the company to prevent these very customers from getting a fair shake.

While I’m amazed by the hypocritical attitude that seems to pervade much of the corporate world today, I’m not surprised when corporate culture asks customers: “What have you done for me lately?” Their mission statement espouses one thing; their actual mission does quite another.

The term “customer satisfaction” may be too subjective and impossible to define. Why? As it is with beauty, it is defined by the buyer, not the seller. Indeed, most corporate cultures couldn’t care less what their buyers think. After all, just look at the way they treat them.

First, they assume that most customers are trying to find “something for nothing.” Second, they make the client wait on hold for unreasonable periods of time before grandly coming on the phone line to ask how they can “be of help.” Third, they build impossible barriers that the client is forced to navigate to garner any “satisfaction.” Finally, the client must play by their rules to get any kind of results. No wonder clients are wary of the empty promise of “customer satisfaction.”

The fact is that keeping customers “satisfied” simply isn’t enough anymore. In fact, if they’re merely satisfied, they often don’t bother to come back—because they don’t like the rules by which they had to play in order to attain this “satisfaction.” And if this is the sorry way most satisfied customers treat you, imagine how ticked off the genuinely dissatisfied customer is.

The unhappy customer will tell an average of 10 other people about their bad experience. Twelve percent will tell up to 20 people. To that end, it’s not enough to simply satisfy a customer anymore. Satisfaction is a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10—and it simply won’t do.

You have to promise a lot nowadays, but you have to deliver more. And whatever you do promise, you must absolutely deliver.

Case in point: There is a Domino’s Pizza vendor in south Detroit who receives the same phone call every Thursday afternoon from someone ordering a hamburger, mushroom, and onion pizza at 4:30 pm By 5:00 pm or thereabouts, Domino’s delivers the pizza. At 5:30 pm the same customer calls back and complains that he was unhappy with the pizza, and before 6:00 pm on Thursday afternoon of each week, Domino’s refunds this customer his money.

To be fair, the customer is simply taking advantage of the Domino’s promise. But Domino’s made the promise. In fact, Domino’s built its entire company on a promise. In the early days, if they failed to deliver within 30 minutes, you got the pizza for free. Then a huge lawsuit ensued that prompted the chain to alter its promise. However, Domino’s still stands by its product today—and if you don’t like it, you don’t pay.

I asked a Domino’s vendor once what this promise cost his shop over the course of a year. “Maybe around $200,” he replied. “[But] the well-publicized stories [on the company] done by 60 Minutes and other [television shows] . . . have been estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars in free advertising.” Keeping customers happy pays dividends.

It is the customer’s opinion of the bad news, stupid—and it travels faster today than ever before.

Takeaway Servicing and Selling Tactics

1. Unhappy customers will fire you on the spot because they now have options that will only increase.

2. They won’t just fire you; unhappy clients will personally tell up to 10 people about their bad experience. Twelve percent will tell 20 people.

CHAPTER 2

Great Customer Service Is About Getting the Client’s Feedback

Happy customers will tell an average of five people about their positive experience.

I’m blessed to be married to the most patient person in the world. My wife, Christine, is the perfect customer. She genuinely feels that the company always deserves the benefit of the doubt and goes to great pains to give them the opportunity to fix a problem when one exists.

Christine patiently navigates her way through the corporate maze that companies construct to render achieving customer satisfaction something of an oxymoron for most of us mere mortals. And when she finally gets what she was after, she’s so appreciative that she writes glowing testimonials to the same people who gave her the third degree to get there—all for doing simply what they are supposed to do. After all, she’s a customer; she paid for the product or service.

I, on the other hand, have a short fuse. I want what I paid for from the beginning and I don’t want to beg. In fact, the title of my most popular keynote address on customer service is “Have I Gotta Beg to Buy?” Laugh at it if you will, but the fact is most customers feel this way about the whole buying process. They’d rather milk a cobra than wander through this maze.

I’ve spoken on this topic at least 75 to 100 times a year for almost four decades, and nearly every single presentation is different. I do up to 50 hours of interviews with every client to find out what they think the issues are. Ironically, the most revealing interviews come from the client’s own customer, whom I also interview.

Mind you, I go into those interviews knowing that they are going to steer me toward a happy customer who is an ongoing client. Even the happy ones have a laundry list of things they were expecting but did not receive.

Though one might wonder why this is, the answer is probably simpler than you think. Maybe, just maybe, the folks charged with the responsibility of sales, marketing, and customer service weren’t trained any better, or maybe they weren’t selected properly. You can hire an idiot and “train” him or her, but all you end up with is a well-trained idiot. The fault may well lie in many different areas of the process.

Take a Lesson from Milliken & Company

In my opinion, the greatest company on the planet is textile giant Milliken & Company, based out of Spartanburg, South Carolina. Since winning the World Championship of Public Speaking for Toastmasters in 1978, I have had the privilege of addressing thousands of audiences in some 22 countries throughout the world. Milliken is my favorite group because they think differently—which makes them a champion in the textile business.

Milliken provides better customer service than any company I know of for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, they require all employees to complete 40 hours of continuing education per year, just to keep their jobs. The company pays for their employees’ courses and offers a variety of choices from Toastmasters to their famous POE weekends, an acronym for Pursuit of Excellence. For years, I had the opportunity to address dozens of Milliken’s POE conferences throughout the Carolinas and Georgia, working alongside speaking giants Tom Peters and others.

Great Customer Service Is About Great Training

According to industry standards, Milliken is not the highest paid workforce in the textile industry. However, some would argue that they are the best trained in the world. Milliken believes you have to teach people to think differently and creatively. Their mantra is simple: To do it better, you have to do it differently.

When I was first introduced to Milliken, I learned of their now-renowned ECR Program, another of their famous acronyms, which stands for Error Cause Removal. Unlike most of their peers, Milliken encourages creative thinking—and they back it up with cash. Milliken managers prowl the floors of their plants, encouraging their employees to find a better way to do a project.

Any new ideas that employees imagine do not go into a suggestion box to be opened three years later. Rather, employees are encouraged to step up and voice their ideas on the spot. Ideas that have merit are implemented immediately. The employee receives a cash bonus that the manager has been empowered to reward. The net result is that Milliken has one of the most innovative workforces in the worldwide textile corridor, with employees who are the envy of the international textile community.

You Get the Behavior You Reward

Milliken realizes an important trend: You get the behavior you reward. The longer it takes to recognize good habits, the less likely employees are to engage in them.

During my career as a motivational speaker, I have learned three incontrovertible facts about motivation:

1. You cannot motivate anybody to do anything they do not want to do. Motivation is internal, not external. It comes from within.

2. All people are motivated to do something. Even the person who stays in bed in the morning rather than going to work is more motivated to sleep. They might be negatively motivated, but they are motivated nevertheless.

3. People do things for their reasons, not anyone else’s. The trick is to find out what their reasons are—which you can do by encouraging creative thinking and rewarding all ideas, no matter how silly they might appear—and by asking the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” questions that managers so rarely ask.

The ECR Program was implemented based on Milliken’s belief that rewards will encourage innovative thinking among their staff members. ECR was designed to reduce or remove margins for error. The net result of the program is that it has saved Milliken millions of dollars over the years, and not just because they caught a mistake here or found a better way to do something there.

It therefore stands to reason that because this program worked so well for Milliken’s internal customers—their employees—then it should apply to the external customer—the end user of the Milliken product. To that end, this imaginative and resourceful company—which battles foreign labor forces that pay their employees pennies per hour—took its idea of “continuing education” to one of their biggest clients: the Chrysler Corporation.

Chrysler buys fabric from Milliken that ultimately becomes the bucket seat cover in their automobiles. That fabric is produced in the form of reams of material that are shaped roughly like a rectangle. That material is ultimately cut and trimmed to become a seat cover in a Chrysler automobile—ultimately shaped like an oval.

Great Client Feedback Will Help Dictate Great Customer Service, if You Bother to Listen!

Milliken brought Chrysler engineers into their Spartanburg, South Carolina, customer training facility and essentially challenged them to provide their feedback on the product. “Tell us how we can do our job better in order to serve you better,” Milliken requested. “We want to teach you how to be a better customer by having you show us how we can produce a more valuable product.”

Frankly, no one had ever spoken to Chrysler’s buyers this way. This was totally innovative and creative thinking: actually asking the customer what they wanted and then giving it to them.

Chrysler responded by saying, “Okay, Milliken; here you go. If we could get this material from you shaped originally like an oval—the shape that we ultimately cut it to be—then it would save our engineers 19 percent to 21 percent in labor costs.”

The cost of trimming the product, perforating it, and then producing it into a bucket seat was costing Chrysler a significant amount of time and money. Trimming the product before it left the Milliken plant immediately saved this time and money—thereby making Chrysler a much happier customer. The program was working; all Chrysler had to do was cut the oval in half and produce a bucket seat.

However, this solution left Milliken with an interesting dilemma of their own: What were they going to do with the “floss” in between the teeth of the bucket seat covers? They came up with an innovative and profitable solution: to turn the extra material into rags. Milliken entered a $50 million per year rag industry, simply by listening to the customer. It was a situation in which both the customer and the vendor win.

Takeaway Servicing and Selling Tactics

1. Work with your customers to come up with creative solutions together. Ask them outright how your products could be better or more helpful.

2. Always communicate. Nothing makes an unhappy customer angrier than someone who won’t respond to their problem.

CHAPTER 3

Fix the Problem; Don’t Fix the Blame

It costs 5 to 15 times more money to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one.

When I lived in South Carolina, I had to find a new grocery store when my uncles retired and closed our family business—Mack’s Cash and Carry grocery. The store I selected shall go unnamed but it appropriately rhymes with the word “ogre.” In those days, I would pile my twin sons into my old pickup truck, and we would head into town to grocery shop. We usually bought a minimum of three shopping carts full of groceries so that we only had to make the trip a couple times per month. We didn’t shop so much as we swooped, pouncing on dozens of cans of such delectable items as SpaghettiOs, a primary menu item in a house with small kids. Since grocery shopping was right up there with chewing tinfoil for me, it was never a truly enjoyable experience. However, one particular afternoon turned out to be worse than the others.

My sons and I had just run up a $450 tab and were checking out our three shopping carts of groceries. I got home, started unloading, and realized I was missing a six-pack of Diet Pepsi drinks. I called the store that rhymes with “ogre” and got the manager. I explained my dilemma. He placed me “on hold” and disappeared for five minutes while he checked with the irrefutable fountain of knowledge (the bag boy) who testified that he indeed saw “the fat guy” drive out with the six-pack of drinks in the back of his pickup.

Stop the Frame

Let’s stop the frame for a moment. If I were going to try to rip off “ogre,” wouldn’t I have gone for the filet steaks? Why pick a $1.79 six-pack of cola? Long story short—the manager came back on and let me know that “The bag boy says you got your drinks, Bub.”

“Bub” is a name to which I don’t normally answer. “Bubba,” perhaps—but never “Bub.”

Clearly frustrated with this response, I called his boss the next day and explained my problem. His superior understood those old customer service rules, of which there are only two: (1) The customer is always right. (2) See rule number one. It isn’t rocket science.

“Sorry that happened,” he explained. “I’ll tell the store to give you a six-pack next time you’re in.”

Now, it just so happened that I was speaking to an “ogre” convention in French Lick, Indiana, the next week. During my speech, I touted the Lexington, South Carolina store’s ability to fix my problem and provide quality customer service. It was a terrific war story that I may have even embellished a bit. Knowing that my diet drinks would be awaiting me when I returned the store, I made their company look like heroes.

Two weeks later the check from “ogre” had cleared, and we were in the store, swooping again. This time I’m checking out some $650 of groceries (yes—we eat a lot). I went to my favorite checkout lady—a neighbor of ours—and explained the diet drink situation. “Yeah, I heard about that,” she replied. Then she said something that concerned me: “Let me go check with the manager.”