Given the Choice…….
Given a choice, most everyone chooses the easy path.
- Work out now or work out later ? most say later.
- Get up now or sleep for another 10 minutes? most sleep.
- File my taxes now or wait until tomorrow ? most wait.
The list goes on and on……. the results are the same.
So how does a person avoid this trap?
Here’s one solution; Don’t give yourself choices.
Stop the either/or cycle.
Do this.
Do it now.
There is no later.
Treat your actions as a first impression…… you only get one chance to do it right.
Treat customers like they are strangers…
I believe everyone I come in contact with is a customer.
A common adage is , “Treat customers as if they were your mother.”
The idea in this advice is that you will interact with the customer in the best and most respectful way. But have you seen how most people treat their mother? or their children? or their spouse? or any other loved one that they are supposed to care about?
When i was around 10 or 11 I asked if I could help my Dad fix the lawnmower in the front yard. He agreed and the fix it session began.
“Hand me the Robertson screw driver,” He said, pointing towards the toolbox.
I stood their confused. There were about 10 screw drivers in the box, and they didn’t look the same at all. The heads of the screwdrivers were shaped differently. Some were star shaped, some were flat, and others were square.
“Which one do you want?” I asked my Dad.
“The Robertson,” he snapped impatiently. He was holding a heavy peice of the lawnmower up and the strain made him shake. It also made him impatient with his son. He quickly reached past me and grabbed one of the square shaped screwdrivers.
A few minutes later he requested a Philips screwdriver, and a similar moment of confusion occured.
It was hot out and my Dad just wanted to get the lawnmower up and running quickly. He wasn’t in the best of moods, and so he sent me into the house.
I had barely gotten my shoes off when my dad came into the house and sat beside me. He then said something which has stuck with me even to this day.
“I’m sorry, Slick.” he said to me calmly. “I was impatient and hot. It’s not your fault you didn’t know what a Robertson or a Philips screwdriver is. No one has ever explained it to you, and that’s my fault.”
“That’s ok,” I said.
“No, it’s not.” He replied.
“I work every day with 40 grown men who report to me. If I spoke to any of them like I did to you, it would be unacceptable. People are nicer to strangers than they are to the people they love, and that’s not right. You’re my son and I love you. I should treat you with more respect and patience than anyone else in the world.”
and he always did. Even before that he did.
But his point was right; most people are more cruel to those they love than they are to strangers.
So next time you interact with a customer, treat them better than most people treat their loved ones.
Treat them like a stranger
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