I recently went out to a car lot – call it Dealership A – and leased a brand new hybrid.
Wow.
What a car.
It gives me 660 miles to a tank.
The staff was friendly and helpful. They gave me a deal I could afford.
Unfortunately, though, they neglected to put on a front license plate frame. When my plates arrived, I went to a different car lot – Dealership B – to have my plates attached. An easy task. They had asked that I let their technicians do it to ensure no damage.
Bearing this in mind, I drove the four miles to Dealership B because Dealership A is 36 miles away.
After fitting the rear plate, they told me the front plate frame was missing. The part was available for $80. They would have to order it.
Looking around, I saw at least eight cars that had the front frames. I asked them to order the part, but would they please remove one of those frames and temporarily put it on my car?
A Surprise Response
Flatly, they said no. The part would be ordered, and I should come back when it was ready.
Meantime I called Dealership A and had them speak to the service manager at Dealership B to explain what I was proposing. They could make an exchange. Again, the answer was no.
The service man at Dealership A made a counter proposal:
“I understand driving here for a minor fix is inconvenient. I will send you the part. You can take it to Dealership B, or I could put it on myself.”
What amazed me was the short sightedness of the service manager at Dealership B.
He failed to see he is in the customer business.
The No. 1 goal always should be finding ways to give a customer what he wants. You give your employees the ability to do something for a client. My goodness. The worst that could happen is a happy client who tells his friends.
The service manager could not see that. He appeared to wrestle with wanting to help within the confines of his rigid corporate procedures. He should know exceptions are made sometimes for good reasons.
What Bureaucracy?
This concept of flexibility, I am told, began on Scandinavian Airlines in the late 1960s. A female passenger caught her silk stockings on a small piece of metal protruding from a seat. Rather than going through a whole corporate process, the stewardess executed a short-cut. She gave the woman a new pair. This single act revolutionized the concept of customer service.
The corporation began to allow lower-level employees to make common sense decisions.
Once there was an Indian woman who began making small loans to women who wanted to start their own businesses. Ninety-nine percent of loans were repaid on schedule. Imaginative thinking helped the woman to fund many more projects.
My car lot experience started me thinking about the way we are treated when we shop.
You should treat others as you expect to be treated. Everyone in retail should remember this at the start of each workday. I realize dealing with the public all day can be frustrating and tiring.
But it is so much better to think:
“I have more fun and more financial success when I think less of what I want and more of how to give a client what he wants.”
If you approach a sale knowing that you are short on your rent for the month, your focus will not be on what the customer wants but how you can get him to buy so you can make a commission.
Tell me which client will come back, the one you made buy something, possibly against his better judgment, or the customer who bought exactly what he wanted?
As a clinical hypnotherapist, I want to be positive for all of my clients. I want to be attentive to what they want.
I enjoy creating with my clients the changes they want. Too often, though, a hypnotherapists would rather give the client what he wants.
One hypnotist said he was an “investigator of the mind.”
What a dangerous, inappropriate attitude. We are not investigators. We are operators of the skill of hypnotism – a skill that can be taught to anyone.
The difficulty lies in knowing what to do when you have a person in a hypnotic trance. That is taught. When learned well, it is a great benefit to all who are willing to try hypnosis to attain their changes.
Do not hesitate to contact me by telephone, 310.204.3321, or by email at nickpollak@hypnotherapy4you.net. See my website at www.hypnotherapy4you.net
