All right. Well, good afternoon, everybody. I hope that everybody is navigating on the system here and has found the webinar. My name is Bobby Weber. I'm with Dream Workplace. And we've done quite a bit of work in the heavy equipment industry for a number of years and served a number of dealerships. And really excited to be with you here to talk about how to really take the customer service in your organization to a higher level. We're focusing on really just the skills that it takes to excel in serving and meeting customers' needs and building preference there in the marketplace. Excited to see some of you all on the call already. And I'll be watching and monitoring your questions as we go along. And feel free to throw those out anytime you like. You can type those in the box right there on the side of your screen. And so here we go. We're going to go and get started. We're going to talk about how we can achieve customer service excellence and really build a customer focused culture. We know that a lot of times that, you know, customers really, you know, our products and service offerings are all critical to our success. But all of that can be undermined by a poor customer experience, right? By poor customer service. So I want to go ahead and begin first off with a couple of quotes that I think are pertinent to our conversation today. And the first is from Michael Hammer. He says, the design of work must be based on the creation of value for the customer. I think a lot of times, you know, you've heard the statement that technology is a wonderful servant and a horrible master. And I think sometimes if we're not careful, we're causing our customers to have to jump through hoops unnecessarily. And so if we just bear in mind that everything that we do should be centered on the customer, that's the idea behind creating a customer oriented environment, a culture that's friendly toward customers and encourages loyalty. Right. And then Gandhi said that a customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not not dependent upon us. We're dependent upon him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We're not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so. So that kind of just helps us to first off, get launched out into this conversation. I really want to challenge each of us today to begin to change how we think about customer service. I think that there are a lot of ideas that people have adopted over the years about what customer service is or isn't. And we're going to challenge some conventional ideas and really stretch our thinking so that we can begin to create the kind of culture that the 21st century is demanding in order to excel in meeting customers' needs and building that kind of preference that it takes to be really successful. One of the things I want to mention just as we're as we're getting into this is the idea of brand integrity. Right. Brand integrity is the ability to effectively communicate with words and deliver with action. Right. The promises that an organization makes to its customers. If there's a gap between the image that we are projecting in our brand and the reality that the customer is really experiencing, then it's going to cost us something. Right. And the bottom line is that you're only great if your customer believes it to be so. Right. And so I think that we don't want to you know, we want to make sure and recognize that we've we've got to be seeing all this through the eyes of of the customer. Right. And so there's I want you to adopt this this phraseology. Right. To think about the customer service experience in your organization, the customer service experience that you create when you interact with those that come in and patronize your business. Right. So why should we be concerned about the quality of our organization's customer service experience? Well, I've got some some reasons that I want to, you know, give you why we need to pay especially close attention to this. Right. The first is that there are studies that have indicated that 80 percent of customer I'm sorry, 80 percent of companies overestimate how happy their customers really are. That's that's dangerous, because obviously, when we overestimate how happy they are, we open the door for them probably to maybe walk away, not always so happy. And and it's going to cost us something. The second thing is that sustainability. Right. Customer relationships have to be managed as hard, tangible assets and great customer service obviously is the key to being successful. The quality of your customer's experience is going to determine the lifespan of that customer relationship. Right. So service providers have to be reminded of a customer's lifetime value to the business. I think sometimes we may think about the last transaction, but in reality, you've got to think about a customer and the level of revenue that they're going to be bringing to your business over the lifetime of the relationship. And this changes drastically, you know, are the perspective on the real value of those customer relationships. Because, again, when you look at after years and years of business, that just multiplies exponentially how much that value really is. Right. And so people have to be made to understand the connection between the customer's experience and not just the the the length of the customer relationship, how long that lifespan is going to be. But it also has a direct impact on everyone in the dealerships overall job security. Everyone who interacts with customers needs a profound understanding of how they excel in serving customer needs, how they can develop critical skills like problem solving skills to solve customers problems. And ultimately, everyone who interacts with customers has to recognize that they're a critical component in helping to preserve the customer's relationship. The relationship with customers is just everything when it comes to how people are interacting with them. So for organizations to effectively improve the quality and effectiveness of their service, there's got to be a fundamental change in how people think. Right. If we just go back and think about this for a second, what I showed you earlier, let's change how we think about customer relationships. Let's think about how do we change the paradigm of where people really view their job, how they view their, you know, the critical importance of customers and how we can influence that. Right. We've got to make sure that we're committed and that everyone else in the organization is committed to service quality and how we're going to exceed customer expectations. Right. Service quality is your reputation. And the customer experience is going to be the the main differentiating factor. Customer service is the only way that we're ever going to set ourselves apart. You know, because when when the competing when we're competing for customers with products and services that are otherwise very similar. Right. No one no one makes it in this business. Right. Without having good products and services. And it's unlikely that very many firms are ever really going to have a superior product or price advantage in the competitive world that we live in. Most of your competitors have good products and somewhat reasonable prices. Right. One of the few genuine opportunities that you do have for a superior advantage is to look to deliver over the top customer experiences. Right. To have phenomenal customer service, because every customer is going to eventually gravitate toward the organization that really serves them best. Right. I just read a statistic this morning that said that 89 percent of all businesses are having to compete more on just the customer experience far beyond just products and services and benefits and features. So it's the customer's opinion that matters. Right. And dealer principals and everyone in the business has to begin to examine the mindset and the character and the values of the person who's interacting with the customer. Right. So we need to think critically about that. We need to think about that. You know, when you when you consider that a customer who buys a $500,000, $800,000 machine, he's going to he's going to put an operator in that machine, maybe 15, 20, 25, 30 dollars, depending on where they're going to where they're at. He's going to put that operator in the seat of that $800,000 machine and then he's going to trust him to treat it like his own. But, you know, the truth is, is that dealerships will put a parts or service person in a seat of driving a an account. Right. And they're driving an account or influencing an account that could be a million, two, two million, five million, ten million dollars a year in revenue. You know, we put an enormous amount of trust in the person who's interacting with that customer. Right. We we should be equally as interested in the competence of the service provider as that customer is in in the the operator that's going to be running that, you know, $800,000 piece of equipment. Right. So I think, again, we're talking about how do we change our thinking and how do we begin to elevate our thinking as it relates to service? And that's one that I want to I want to point out to you a couple of things. Just if you're taking notes and I trust that you are is that number one to recognize that service providers are in the business of preserving customer relationships. All right. Number two, big idea so far that we've talked about is that we want everyone to begin to think about customers and their real value as assets to the organization. We have inventory out in the yard. We're thinking about the value of the inventory of the yard. We're thinking about the inventory of our facilities, the buildings, you know, all of that. And all of those do represent very real, tangible value as assets to us. But you know what? The customer relationship is just as real as any other asset and should be managed with the same type of consideration. Right. All right. So what I'd also like to just kind of have each of you, if we could just have a show of hands of those of you. I want you to be sure to know that, you know, typing in questions as we go along. I'm interested to hear your thoughts as we go along. Right. So next point. Here we go. Service provider behavior powerfully influences customer behaviors such as loyalty. Right. So I want you to think about this, that, you know, we are responsible for giving customers reasons for being loyal to us. It's amazing in the nearly 20 years that I've been working with within this, you know, with various equipment dealerships and folks in the industry. And how many people will complain about how, you know, that customer loyalty has gone out the window and you just don't see customers as loyal as they used to be. But I want to tell you all something that customer loyalty is not really the customer's responsibility. Customer loyalty is an outcome and a result. And if we want folks to be more loyal, then we've got to give them more reasons to be loyal. We're responsible for giving them reasons to be loyal. And that's that. Right. OK. So here we go. All of that kind of paving the way to what we really want to say now and begin our thought process. True North. Right. What are the shared values that service providers need to have? Because the fact is, is that behavior is is an outcome of values. Values drive behavior. Right. Great customer service providers are constantly guided by their conscience. They're guided by highest values and ethics, not their ego and not their own self-interest. Right. And so. The people who interact with with customers must reliably exhibit these kinds of values and character and business acumen, the values and character and general attitude that folks consistently demonstrate every day is every much as bit every bit as much your brand as the name on the equipment that you sell. Right. And happy customers help ensure I'm sorry, happy employees help ensure happy customers. You know, the quality of your internal service, right, is going to influence the quality of the external service that customers experience. And you all know that sometimes the sales department, the parts department, the service department, you know, there can be tension between all of those points. And if we don't manage that effectively, the customer ultimately is the one who pays for it. And and then all the rest of us pay for it, too. Right. So what do we do about that? We've got to make sure that as leaders, that we're always emphasizing the highest ethical values. We've got to make sure that that we create a culture that is focused on customer needs. And the only way we do that is we've got to highlight and champion these critical values that are going to drive customer behavior. You know, these behaviors have to be encouraged and recognized and rewarded. Great customer service experiences are intentionally engineered. These awesome experiences don't just happen randomly or by accident. They occur because someone made it happen. Some someone took the initiative to make a great customer experience happen. We also know that genuine service to others is it's a character trait like integrity or honesty. It's not something that anyone can conveniently turn on or off, is it right? So so then service to others is really an extension of who you really are as a person. And, you know, what we what we found even in our business is is that, you know, assessing those that are going to be providing service and recognizing that there are key traits and key values that we want to make sure anyone who is interacting with a customer is going to demonstrate these these values. Because every business wants to do business with someone who shares values, who shares their their perspective on on how business should be conducted and done. Right. And part of that, I think, is gratitude. So so the first thing is we you know, we're going to talk about values. And one of those values is is gratitude. You know, I know that that gratitude really is the underlying foundation for all great customer service interactions. Right. People have choices about who they're going to do business with. And nothing is more obvious to a customer than either the presence of or the absence of genuine gratitude. You know, the customer doesn't have to be a psychologist or a psychic to determine whether the person serving them is really grateful for the opportunity to do so. And all right. Is it OK for me to ask for an amen? Could somebody out there just type type in just a hey, amen or something like that? That would be a huge encouragement to me here. OK, so first, we're understanding that gratitude is a value that we've got to demonstrate. And we also understand that gratitude and its opposite in gratitude are both impossible to ignore. Right. And then genuine customer gratitude and empathy cannot be faked. Great customer service begins with authentic care and concern for the customer's problems and best interest. Right. The true motives and intent of any service provider is always going to be eventually exposed. Right. That customers are going to give their loyal to those who earn it by delivering what they promised. And then I want to park here for a moment. Gratitude helps guard us against the insidious effects of familiarity. You know, what is familiarity? Well, you know, to become familiar with someone is a good thing, isn't it? Well, it is. But we've all heard the term or the phrase before that familiarity breeds contempt. Right. What does that really mean? Familiarity breeds contempt. Well, quite simply, that means that folks can become so familiar with people, so familiar that at some point they stop really showing appropriate value and respect. Right. Let me give you a couple of examples. First off, you know, think about a young man who who reaches out to a young woman he's attracted to and says, hey, you know, would you like to go out on a date? And she says yes. And he's so excited. And next thing you know, he goes out and washes the car and shines up the shoes and gets flowers, you know, dresses up real nice. And he goes to pick her up and she looks great. And he walks her to the car and opens the door for her. And, you know, there's flowers and everything. And it's just amazing. Right. Well, what happens later? Eighteen years later, they've been married for 15 years. And and now what's happened? Right. Well, she can open her own door. He doesn't she doesn't feel like that that he treats her special. And what's happened? Familiarity has come in and downgraded the relationship. Right. Let's talk about something else we can relate to. Let's talk about the the applicant for a job that comes in says, man, give me a job. If you'll give me a job, I'll I'll be your best go to person. Just give me a chance. And so we give him a shot. And sure enough, man, he's just great. He's excited. He's doing, you know, jumping over tall buildings and just doing a great job. Right. Six months later, he's been with us. We give him an assignment. Hey, can you go do this? And he says, well, I didn't realize that was a part of my job. Right. All of a sudden. And what do we say? Hey, where did the guy go that I interviewed who is going to be my go to guy and would do every familiarity comes in. Right. And familiarity simply causes people to treat relationships that are valuable as though they are just merely common. And I'm telling you that because service providers are just as apt to become overly familiar with customers as anyone else. Right. Familiarity does breed contempt. And we need to make sure we watch that. Right. OK. Next value I want to talk about for a moment is servanthood. Servanthood. Some of you may have heard of the book by Robert Greenleaf called Servant Leadership. Servanthood is an important concept. It's really critical. We're talking about customer service. So we ought to investigate what does it really mean to serve? Right. Servanthood. Miriam Webster defines a servant as one that serves a person who is devoted to or guided by something, a person in the employee or subject to the instruction or direction of another. Incidentally, that might be the customer. Right. So true service only happens within the context of empathy. Customer empathy is what's going to cause people to really love and appreciate you. Empathy will always win the hearts and loyalty of customers because the bottom line is that the customer's greatest need often is just simply to be understood. And until you see things through the eyes of your customer, you don't really see the world as it really is. And so empathy also helps you to reliably respond to customers needs with an appropriate sense of urgency. All of us have probably felt the frustration of someone who simply did not bring an appropriate sense of urgency. Chase, thank you for that. Right on. I believe that. You know, we know that oftentimes if we don't bring urgency when it's desperately needed, when the customer really needs to see it, then we'll be written off. The customer will write us off because we simply didn't bring it when we needed to. Right. I've told this story for years. Just imagine that that, you know, your son or daughter is is playing baseball or softball and they get hit in the head with the ball. And you think, man, I better take him to the emergency room and get him checked out. And as you're pulling up to the emergency room, you notice that, oh, this medical facility has just been voted the number one regional medical center in the whole state. And you're comforted by that. You walk in to the emergency room and you notice the doctor's pictures on the wall. And oh, it just so happens that the doctor who's on call tonight was number one in his in his class at Harvard Medical School. And you're you're comforted by that. And you're excited about that. And you you're escorted down to a waiting room and you're waiting for the doctor to come in. And he looks at your son or daughter and says, oh, so you got hit in the head by a ball. Yep. Well, hey, you know what? We're going to get you checked out. And then in the middle of his of his sentence, he stops and looks at his watch and he says, oh, you know what, we're we're getting ready to go on break here. So I tell you what, we're going to be back here in about 15, 20 minutes and get your son and daughter checked out here. And then, you know, so just give me about 15 minutes. We'll be right back. Now, you tell me what just happened in your mind. What all of a sudden the fact that they're the number one rated regional medical center, that he's the number one Harvard Medical School graduate. None of that means anything. All of the state of the art equipment that they've got. None of that means anything. Why? Because that person lacked urgency when it was desperately needed. And I just want to tell you that we have to make sure that when we're dealing with customers, this is their business. Their business is on the line and they're looking to us to have a sense of urgency and servanthood does that. Right. Urgency is just really an expression of proper empathy. And one more thing I want to tell you about, about this, we're going to continue. But this this idea about servanthood is that service to others really is the only true path to greatness. Our greatness is revealed in our in our service to others, those that we serve, when we serve them with an attitude of personal humility. This is always going to ultimately achieve, help us achieve professional advancement, promotion. It's going to endear us to them. Service to others is an expression of humility that engenders trust. I do a lot of leadership training and all the leadership training I do. I always talk about humility as a critical component to great leadership. And the reason is, is that if someone doesn't possess at least a little humility, I don't trust them. And I don't think anyone else does either. Right. That when service is not seasoned with humility, it comes across as insincere. And, you know, someone someone once said, right, I love this quote. It's that really you've got to be willing to serve people or you're you're you're not going to serve anyone. You don't even serve yourself. Right. That self-interest is is self-defeating. There's a great book. It's by Simon Sinek. It's about leadership. And it's called. Oh, my gosh. I just forgot the name of that book. Right. Oh, I know what it's called. Is that great? He said leaders eat last. That's the name of the book. OK. Leaders eat last. And the idea that he presents in the book is that great leadership always comes at the expense of self-interest. Right. It is the mark of maturity and intelligence to be able to place the needs of others above your own self-interest. Right. And I tell folks all the time, self-interest smells. So you've got to be careful about that. Right. And that your willingness to serve the needs of others, particularly customers, is going to elevate your value and advance your success all the time. Right. OK. Let's talk about going the extra mile. You've got to be willing to be inconvenienced for customers. In fact, this is the ultimate expression of servanthood is a willingness to be inconvenienced. Right. You prove your value to others when you're willing to be inconvenienced. You know, you can either jump up and willingly take care of the need or you can sit back and roll your eyes. And all of that says something about you that people it screams in people's ears. Right. So we've got to make the most out of every customer service opportunity. You only have we all only have a limited number of opportunities to truly differentiate ourselves and you've got to seek to distinguish yourself and stand out as special and above average with your customers. You've got to learn to recognize opportunities to go the extra mile. I tell folks you've got to be able to see it and seize it, right? And so I want to talk about for a moment what I call the law of recognition. The law of recognition basically says that everything we ever really need is already present in our life waiting to be recognized, right? And that number two is that anyone you fail to recognize or celebrate or you won't fully appreciate them, right? That if you fail to recognize someone then you're not going to celebrate them, right? You're not going to appreciate them appropriately. And then anyone you fail to appreciate you're going to you'll fail to reward. You're not going to reward them. So if you fail to appreciate them you don't reward them and then ultimately anyone who feels unrewarded or underappreciated is going to exit your life, right? We ought to go the extra mile to show appreciation and serve the needs of others. And how do we do that? You've got to see it, right? You've got to see it. You've got to seize it. Take advantage of every opportunity to go the extra mile. When you recognize and proactively act upon extra mile service opportunities you create what I call a revealing moment of truth. What is a revealing moment of truth? I believe it's when someone, whether good or bad, shows their true colors, right? Sooner or later, for better or for worse, there will always be a revealing moment of truth when the light bulb comes on and exposes that either these folks really care about our business or these folks really don't care, right? We've all had those kinds of revealing moments of truth before and I believe that we can engineer these. I believe we can plan and be prepared and watch for opportunities to go the extra mile and show folks just exactly how committed we are to their success. Truth is that none of us want to deal with or do business with someone who's indifferent toward our needs and who doesn't really understand why they're there and why we're doing business with them. So every interaction between a service provider and a customer is a revealing moment of truth, isn't it, right? And that the sum total of these revealing moments of truth reveals everything that people need to know about us and whether they want to do business with us. It reveals a lot about our character. It reveals a lot about our integrity and our level of professionalism. And so I think sometimes people just lose sight of this. They don't understand that really great customer service moments, these revealing moments of truth are something that you have to make happen. Revealing moments of truth start on someone's drawing board. Someone has to begin to plan ahead of time to make these moments happen. Phenomenal customer experiences do not happen randomly or by accident, right? These are deliberate occurrences that are planned. We're watching for these opportunities and we jump on those opportunities. So every customer interaction is an opportunity to create a revealing moment of truth. We want them to know exactly how committed we are to their best interests, right? We want to learn to have reactions to customer needs that just demonstrate excellence and commitment to them. And that, you know, the other thing I want to tell you about in this regard is how that extra effort, right, can really compensate for a whole, a vast variety of competitive disadvantages, right? And it really is true that, you know, you can have a manufacturer, an equipment manufacturer that dedicates, you know, tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars to new product development and improving, you know, their product. And yet another company that doesn't make, another manufacturer that doesn't make that kind of investment, but where, think about it this way, let me just get this out the way I feel like I really want to say it, right, that your customer could have a product that might be five or 10% better than yours. But if your customer service is 50% better than theirs, who do you think's going to win that business? Yeah, that's the way I wanted to say that, right? And you all know as well as I do, right, that people are going to gravitate toward where the best service is. Everyone wants to do business with people who get it, right? Everyone wants to do business with people that they like. Everyone wants to do business with people that they trust and that's going to give them the type of service they feel like that they deserve, right? So this leads me to the next point that I think we want to really drive home. And by the way, I love this. I love this quote that if the ax is dull and the edge is unsharpened, then more strength is needed, right? So look, you can have, that just reiterates what we already said. So let's talk about making a commitment to personal and professional excellence, right? Making a personal and professional commitment to excellence. First off is I believe that everybody has within themselves the capacity for excellence. But it has to be drawn out, right? You have to make a decision that you want to be excellent. And so the first thing that anyone that wants to, right? Anyone who wants to become excellent can, right? But to do so, you first have to be willing to become a student of your customer's business and your own business, right? No one becomes a master at anything without a significant investment of time and effort to learn their craft. Even extremely gifted people must develop discipline in order to stay ahead of the pack. Prodigies, we know that, you know, a prodigy may be a master at an instrument, musical instrument or, you know, at a very young age, four or five years old, three years old. But if that, at some point, if that prodigy does not develop discipline to practice and become increasingly better at their craft, those that are not prodigies but are just absolute hard workers will ultimately catch up with that prodigy and surpass them by about the year of, you know, 20, 20 some years of age, right? What am I saying? That if the ax is dull and the edge is unsharpened, more strength is needed, right? So commitment to excellence, become a student of your business, become a student of your customer's business. I also want to point out that there are some rewards for developing a reputation for excellence that we don't want to overlook. And the first is, is that your work literally becomes a passion, right? We inevitably learn to enjoy more those things that we care enough about to become increasingly better at, right? Pablo Casals, the world-famous cellist, at 87 years of age, someone asked him, they said, you're Pablo Casals, you're the world's greatest cellist, and yet you practice five hours a day. Why do you do that? He said, because I think I'm getting better. And you know what? As long as we're alive and breathing, we ought to be committed to getting better at what we do, right? Learn to love your work. If you do, then you'll inevitably bring a greater affection to the customer you're serving, right? The customer who's choosing to transact business with you, the customer who's enabling you to do the work that you love and fulfill a meaningful purpose in life, right? Excellent work reveals character. So when you give your work the best effort that you possibly can, you send a positive message to your customers, your boss, your coworkers, anyone else around paying attention, right? You make a powerful, positive statement about yourself and your place in the world and your willingness to make a difference, right? When you're passionate about your work, you also release creative problem-solving ability that would otherwise not be accessible, right? So a lack of passion is going to downgrade all of their other assets, right? So we need to be passionate because folks want to do business with folks that are passionate. And then that will lead to your being preferred, right? Customers will always have an irresistible preference for those that are excellent. And then that will cause people to trust you, right? George McDonald said, it's greater to be trusted than it is to be loved. You know what? There's a lot of people that I love and some of them I don't trust so much, right? And so I'll tell you that there are some folks that I trust and trust is everything, right? So never, ever, ever, ever violate your customer's trust. You know, I know it happens. I hear about it happening. I hear from folks all the time that talk about how that they will make commitments to customers and then not keep them or they'll tell a customer something now that they know isn't true and try, you know, hopefully, you know, the truth is you're always going to have to pay the fiddle, right? And when a customer's trust fund has been overdrawn, it can take at least seven or more major deposits into that trust account to even bring it back up to zero, right? When you drop the ball once, you have to do typically several things exceptionally well in order to be back to square one. And sometimes that still isn't enough, right? So any violation of your customer's trust is going to diminish your value in their eyes. Any sin against your customer is a sin against yourself, right? So the reward for excellence is that, you know, your work becomes your passion. You become preferred. You got to be promoted and you're going to prosper, right? So maybe that helps you remember that. Okay, now, why is that so important? Because I think there is a, I call it customer service amnesia, all right? What is customer service amnesia? Well, it's the fact that most people as service providers, sometimes they are not as acutely aware of the customer experience as a service provider as they are whenever they're in, you know, standing in the shoes of the customer and they're on the receiving end, right? Think about, you know, going to the mall on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and you go to one of the kiosks to get a cup of coffee or something and you notice the kid behind the counter is talking on his cell phone and he isn't paying much attention to his responsibility to serve the customer, right? You try to get his attention and he kind of rolls his eyes and reluctantly comes and takes your order, right? Well, I guarantee you if that kid was on the other side of that counter receiving service, he'd be very much aware of what it's like and how pathetic that service is. I'll never forget years ago I took my wife and kids and my grandson, we went to California and we were going to go to the beach and it was awesome and at the end of the day we went to a very well-known ice cream place, I think it was Baskin Robbins ice cream. We walked in at about, I don't know, maybe it was about 8.45, right? And as soon as we walk in, the kid looks at me behind the counter and says, well, you know, we close at 9 o'clock and my response was simply, well, then you best get to dip an ice cream then, bub, because we're going to have some. Isn't it amazing, right, that people can give such horrible service and yet if they were on the receiving end, they would never give that kind of, you know, they would be, it just blows my mind, right? Just blows my mind that people are unaware and so indifferent to customers sometimes and you know what, I see it in dealerships, I travel around the country and work with a variety of different organizations that are marketing equipment and dealer principals that are really committed and yet, you know what, the weakest link, the weakest link is the one person out there who is giving the customer an ugly experience can affect everything, right, undermine everything that we've spent millions of dollars trying to ensure and build a business and yet one individual who just doesn't get it, right, can really negatively affect what we're trying to accomplish. So, I feel like it's important, it's important to help everyone understand these values and to remind one another what it takes to excel in business and putting the customer first, right, so as customers, we know how to respond to poor service, right, we go elsewhere, we often tell our friends and colleagues to do the same but as business people, we undergo a kind of amnesia that prevents us from seeing that same mechanism applies to our customers, right, so we need to help everyone remember that the customer is the one who's helping us keep the lights on, the customer is the one who is really our purpose for being here, the customer is the one who's providing us with the job security that we value and enables us to provide for our families, right, we need to help people remember, remember, remember, all right. Next, help me help you, we've got to be able at times to be able to help our customers maybe become better customers, right, we've got to be able to coach our customers on how to be better contributors to their own interests, you know, inevitably as a service provider, you're going to need to encourage or coach a customer to either do or not do certain things that are going to help ensure that the customer receives the best outcome, it's not uncommon to have customers that will call you at the last minute and want you to jump through hoops and but the truth is the quality of the inputs from the customer is always going to impact the resulting outcomes you deliver to customers, right, so in an effort to appease, sometimes we as service providers, we agree to something that was either impossible or nearly impossible, right, only later that if it all goes south, we're going to become angrily hammered by the same customer who is begging us to over promise in the beginning, right, I think, you know, we best serve our own interest as well in the interest of our business and the interest of our customers by making sure that we don't agree to, you know, something that's going to be nearly impossible or impossible to do, we're kind of setting ourselves up for failure in that regard and yet some people really struggle with being able to push back with customers, but look, you're either going to pay on the front end or you're going to pay on the back end and what you pay on the back end is going to be a lot higher in terms of customer disappointment, right, I would rather help accurately adjust the customer's expectations on the front end, so let's talk about that, let's talk about negotiating the customer's interest, let's talk about negotiating the customer's expectations rather, how do we negotiate expectations so we don't set ourselves up for failure, I think we need to be able to understand the difference between negotiating and begging, alright, this is, this is I think something we want to tune into, if you ask for something before the deal is finalized, you're negotiating, right, customer calls, needs something, it's on the front end, we're trying to set those expectations, in the initial phase of when we're setting expectations, this is, this is when we're negotiating, right, if you have to ask for something before the deal is finalized, you're negotiating, if you have to ask for something after the deal has been finalized, well now you're begging, okay, so in the earliest stages of the customer interaction, you have the opportunity to influence reasonable expectations, during the promissory time, prior to when the customer's expectations are set and finalized, you have the opportunity to negotiate these expectations, but if you have to go back and readjust expectations afterward, after the customer's finalized his or her expectations, you're not negotiating anymore, you're begging, and we can avoid that, right, we can avoid that by just having enough assertiveness and being willing to just have the conversation and set those expectations realistically. Number three is that the customer's not always right, but the customer is always the customer, right, we've heard that, right, the customer's always right, the customer's always right, you know what, the customer's not always right, but the customer is always the customer and is therefore deserving of our respect and our appreciation, they're deserving of honor, but again, we have to make sure that we understand that there are times that we have to help customers understand things more perfectly, right, to correct the customer like you would correct your boss, okay, with an attitude of service and humility, right. Number four, sometimes you've got to teach customers how to be better customers, right, and the way we do this is, and we're not making suggestions to the customer merely so that we can make our own lives easier, but primarily because we really are concerned about meeting the customer's needs and meeting their expectations, avoiding disappointment, if you can help make a customer more thoughtful, if you can help make a customer a better planner, if you can help customers be more thorough and accurate, then you elevate your chances of successfully meeting their needs and building a sustainable relationship, right. How many times I've heard folks talk about a customer calling in and they give the wrong parts number and then the customer's upset because we ordered the wrong part and, you know, all of that can be avoided if we just learn how can I influence my customer, how can I, you know, how can I help the customer to help me do a better job for them, right, help me help you, and then when you elevate your value, I'm sorry, you elevate your value when you proactively identify needs that the customer has not yet recognized. I love this quote by Steve Jobs, he says, get closer than ever to your customer, so close that you can tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves. When we learn how to look ahead and really, obviously, this is paramount to the idea of just, you know, upselling and upselling isn't a self-serving thing, it's really recognizing what the customer needs and it positions you in your customer's eyes to be a valued advisor, right. Hey, if you're ordering this, you're going to need that and if you're going to have this, you're going to, it's just being mindful of what the customer's needs really are. We always want to hope and believe for the best, but we should also anticipate the worst, right, and be prepared for that. We need to help the customer to anticipate unexpected obstacles because, and make a note of this, right, that any obstacle that we can anticipate, we can also disempower, right. Think about this for a moment. When you anticipate a flat tire and make sure you've got a spare that's aired up, what have you done? You have just disempowered the possibility of a flat tire to ruin your day. When you anticipate rain and you pack an umbrella, you have disempowered the weather to be able to ruin your day, right. Smart people anticipate the unexpected and I call this productive paranoia, right, and great business people haven't. Great business people are always looking out for the unexpected and you know, as service providers to our customers, we've got to do that. We've got to help them anticipate what could go wrong and help them be prepared for that mentally so that if it does occur, that we, by pointing it out, we have elevated our value in their eyes by being more mindful and aware, having our eyes wide open, right. So this is critical to our success and our customer success is to be able to anticipate things and see ahead all of this coming, right. Because the number one rule of business that I always advocate wherever I go is no surprises, right, at least no unpleasant surprises. You know, we need to, so I'm just going to go back and hit a few highlights, things I want to really point out in the few moments we have left here. And as I'm doing this, if you have any questions, I'd love for you to point those out. We'll take some time to address any questions or thoughts that you might want to share with us, right. You know, we want to convey a consistent attitude of gratitude, right. We want to be intentional and help set, you know, reasonable expectations so that we can exceed them, right. We want to keep our hand on the pulse of the customer experience. We want to listen, right. I've always said that if you listen to your customer's whisper, you won't have to hear them scream. Yes, you don't want to hear them scream. And then recognize this, that a customer complaint is a valuable gift. If you're willing to respond with some kind of observable accommodating corrective action, you know, you can always use a customer complaint as an opportunity to literally to build a stronger relationship than you had before something went wrong. Zig Ziglar said that statistics indicate that when a customer complains, that business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. Because the complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business to be able to improve and also to ensure that we don't offend any other customers in that way, right. So while we'd all probably rather hear praise and appreciation more so than criticism, the fact is, is that criticism is really more valuable, right. And, you know, we need to really savor the problems that customers give us to solve, right. You don't really even have an opportunity until your customer has a problem that you can solve. And be quick, you know, to get back with customers about bad news, right. And place more of an emphasis on what you can do rather than what you can't do, right. And then create lines of communication so that we can, you know, share that kind of feedback. We need customer feedback, right. The more that you engage with customers and the more they're willing to share feedback, the more opportunity you have to take things to the next level and build a lasting relationship with customers, right. Okay. Well, hey, it's been great to be able to spend this time with you all. If there aren't any other questions or any other comments, I would love to hear what you have to say. But I think that's going to pretty much wrap it up for us for today. I appreciate all of you tuning in. I appreciate your participation and look forward to maybe being able to be with you all in future webinars. I want to say a special thanks to the AED and Elizabeth Cave for being able to organize this. And I look forward to talking to you all at some point in the future. Go out there and impress your customers. And you all are very welcome. Thank you, Jace, for your participation today. And you guys have a fantastic rest of the week. And I look forward to talking to you soon, okay. Have a great day.

customer service excellence

customer-focused culture

putting the customer first

meeting customer needs

values for excellent customer service

skills for excellent customer service

negotiating expectations with customers

customer feedback

resolving complaints