Create Customers Who Create Customers

“It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.” – Henry Ford  

If you were a contestant on a game show and you were asked what is the number one reason we are here at this business, what would be your answer?  If your answer was anything but providing the best customer service for our customers then you just lost the game.

Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart once said; “There is only one boss, the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”  Another great quote is from Shiv Sing, who said; “The purpose of a business is to create a customer who creates a customer.

You can pick up almost any book, from any business expert and the theme will be the same, The Customer is the number one priority. If we in our daily hustle to get things done fail to deliver on this priority then everything we do is for naught.   Do not misinterpret that statement, most of our tasks are important, and necessary to be able to deliver great customer service.  However, if doing so keeps us from being the best at delivering great customer service, then we have our priorities all wrong.

It has been said that success breeds success, and customers love to shop at successful establishments, especially when they also deliver great customer service.    On the other hand, if you want to get a customer’s attention and a complaint, give poor service, I assure you they will tell everybody they know.

Unfortunately, more people tend to complain than compliment.  However, if you want to receive your customer’s compliments, earn it!  You can do so by making your mind up that every customer that walks through that door, (even the grouchy ones), is your number one priority, and that nothing is going to prevent you from giving them the best customer service available anywhere.

Will you join me today and be resolved that we are going to “create customers who create customers”?  Remember, “We will consistently please each customer”.  Have a great week!

Keys To Advancement

“Be ready when opportunity comes…Luck is the time when preparation and opportunity meet.” – Pierre Elliott Trudeau    

Often I am asked just what it takes to move up in the company.  While there are many factors that must be considered when deciding whether one gets promoted, while another does not, the greatest determining factor, to me at least, is who has most prepared themselves to step into the position.

The type of preparation I am talking about comes from many avenues.  Some of those can only be obtained by one’s life experiences, attitude,  and education.  Others come from hard work and determination to be the best you can be, and showing that determination every day.

Still much of what is needed, is a heart that wants what is best for our customers, and in taking care of the customer, takes care of the business as well.  If you are truly committed to being the best at customer service, the business will flourish and grow right along with the loyalty of our customers.

Let me challenge each of you today who have a desire to further your career here, or anywhere else you may go in your lifetime, to prepare for every opportunity that may come to you.  One of those ways is your associate engagement plan.  Those who seek opportunities to become future leaders need to start today preparing themselves for when those doors open.  This also shows those making the decisions, that you are truly committed to be considered for those opportunities.  To put it very blunt, if you want to move up, complete your plan.

Finally, ask for opportunities to learn.  The more you know the more valuable and ready you are to a company.  Seek out new adventures in learning.  If there is something, you don’t know how to do, ask someone if you can help them.  Whether it is mixing paint, looking something up regarding inventory, or anything else, there are those here who will help you and let you glean knowledge from them.

Seize every opportunity to grow personally and in turn, there will be more opportunities for you to move up within this growing company.  Have a great week, and as we think about Independence Day, remember the price that has been paid, so that we may all live in freedom!

Harold

I Tremble For My Nation

I Tremble For My Nation

By:  Harold Stockburger

As we approach another Independence Day I find myself not as celebratory as I once was.  The nation of my youth now seems lost at sea without a rudder.  Elections now are more about “what will you do for me” and less about the direction of our once great nation.  Gone are the days of John F. Kennedy, when he so eloquently stated; “my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

In this age of progressivism and political correctness, when every semblance of what once made this nation the greatest on earth is under attack, we find the will of the majority no longer important and even those elected to serve are feckless and most concerned with their own political self-preservation and not the electorate.  When did the heart of a nation become for sale to the loudest, or the highest bidder?  Where did we as a nation jump the track and abandon the solid principles espoused by those great individuals who forged this nation out of nothing, and selflessly put everything, including their own lives, at risk for the cause of freedom?  Are our freedoms now a commodity, negotiable, and available to be bought and sold for the sake of expediency?

The great Eighteenth Century Irish Statesman Edmund Burke warned us that these days would come.  Once he wrote that, “When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service.  They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”  God help us, that we now find ourselves in this condition, where the government is more important and more powerful than the governed.  I firmly believe that our Founding Fathers would scarcely recognize the country we are about to hand to our children and grandchildren.

What has happened to the type of rugged individualism that caused entire families to load up into wagons and seek opportunities in the rugged western parts of our nation?  Where are the God-fearing pastors and statesmen, like those from our past, who once stood in the pulpits and streets, espousing what some, considered treasonous words?  Their words once burned into the consciousness of a young nation.  A nation of freedom seeking people, determined to break the chains of tyranny and servitude, and unlock the shackles, so freedoms light could burn bright for the entire world to see.  A people willing to sacrifice their own lives so that future generations may enjoy the freedom they only dreamed.

When I think about my youth, while some of those times were as all of history has been, very turbulent, there was optimism for the future that better days were ahead.  Sitting here today, I find myself not so sure that is so.  No longer do I look forward to those better days, instead I want a return to the country that once was comfortable and safe.  I long for a nation again where “In God We Trust”, means something and the laws of God are once again the basis and guide for our daily lives and the laws of our land.

Once again, I want to cast my vote for men and women who care more about the future of our nation than their own political ambitions, and are willing to stand up against whatever new wind is blowing and honor our founders words written on that sacred document; The Constitution, even if they are the only one standing.  Never again will I cast my vote for anyone who does not cherish, honor, and protect the words of that document.  To earn my vote they must also respect and seek guidance from the God who guided so many to seek out this special place.

Not that many years ago, I proudly voted for the first time, and in doing so, I voted for a President who shared the same vision for America that our founders did.  President Ronald Reagan often spoke of an America that would be, “a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere”.  Once I also believed the same, today I tremble for the nation that we are quickly becoming.

President Reagan also warned us that; “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”  Sadly, I now fear the day is coming when our grandchildren are going to ask us, why we let freedom’s light be extinguished.

Every day is a new day, but each day is also another chapter waiting to be written.  The question we must all answer is whether the future chapters will be spent, fanning the flames of freedom, or hiding in fear as the country we all know and love, slowly erodes and eventually becomes but one more great civilization relegated to the ash heap of history.   Even as we watch, many of our cities are falling to the ground because of policies and politics, which long ago ceased to recognize what is great about this nation, but instead became mired in corruption and demagogue politics.

Will this Independence Day be the one that can ignite freedoms’ torch once again in our hearts?  Is the price of freedom too high or are you willing to pay whatever price necessary so future generations can live as free men and women in the greatest country God ever put on this earth?  Will you join with me and remember these words from President John F. Kennedy?  “With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”