The four magic words of business

Really - Four Magic Words.

When I was small, I clearly remember my parents asking me for the ‘magic word’. I am sure as I raised my children that I too asked them for the magic word when they asked me for something. And the word was magic – because you knew if Mom asked you for the magic word, her answer to your question was likely yes. So 'please' became a natural part of our vocabulary.

In business there are magic words that we sometimes say but may rarely consider. When was the last time you focussed on ‘service’ instead of commerce? It’s true that commerce is the result of ongoing transactions within an organization – but s this the only thing that our businesses are reduced to?

How can I serve? Magic words in more ways than one.

A customer hears “how can I help you” on a regular basis – but rarely hears the question “how can I best serve your needs today?” It is hard to imagine anyone wanting to serve in this day and age. It seems that we regard serving as beneath us. Business has been reduced to the exchange of goods and services for a fee.

“How can I serve?” changes everything.

It changes:

• How we look at our business
• Our attitude
• Our willingness to do what it takes
• Focuses on helping and not exchange of services for a fee

Asking how you can serve another focuses on the pay it forward attitude not the “what can I get mentality”

Serving another is the most spiritual connection we can make with another human being. It keeps us humble and sets an entirely different and non-competitive tone to business. When we serve we - do our best. True service is offered in the spirit of love.

Just think how those magic words can change your business. When no longer focussed on making money – we are rewarded monetarily and serve with joy. Adding the service mindset to any position – whether it is your own business or a business you work for brings the joy and contentment back into our work.

So tell me – How can I best serve you?

If you are looking for coaching please contact us for more information.

Easy... easy like Sunday morning...

I may be giving away my age - but the song "Easy like Sunday morning" by Lionel has been playing over and over in my head when I think of the last phone call I had with a supplier.  But first let me begin with....

I am not always easy!  Although I try to be fairly mellow about most things - I know that I am a tough customer. I do my very best to be polite but I expect to be treated with respect as I am purchasing a product – or may be purchasing one – and I would hope that the company I am dealing with would like continue to do business with me.

But lets turn the table. From a business perspective – I wonder – am I easy to do business with? Are you?

Recently, I have had several experiences that taught me a lot about how we can make it easy to do business with us. Let me explain.

This past week, I was doing some business house keeping. Over the holidays I had found several over charges on my credit card, noted some accounts that were being mailed to the wrong address and decided to switch all my business purchases to one credit card. Many of these jobs were quite simple in nature – but added together they took me the better part of a week to get done. Here are some of the issues I encountered:

• One supplier refused to speak on the phone with me. All correspondence had to be done via email. This resulted in 25 emails to get cleared up - because the business overcharged me and I wanted reimbursed. Total time spent for 25 emails – 1.5 hours
• One supplier did not have my account information viewable – so I had to call and leave a message to change my credit card number. Then after I received a call back I was sent a form to fill in and fax back. Total time spent – 35 minutes
• The phone company said they changed my billing address after the first 25 minute call – but one month later I called back – was transferred to 4 different operators who all had to verify who I was and my account number and two pieces of I.D. before they changed the billing address a second time. Total in tow calls 1.25 hours 
• A mail support supplier over billed me by $75 dollars and when I asked for a refund they would credit the card – but they had the incorrect address. To change the address I had to send and email on letterhead to the company. I used the email address they gave me and it bounced. I had to call back and start over. Then they told me it was MY responsibility to check and see if the refund went through. Total time spent – 1.5 hours

These are only a few of the activities that consumed my week. 

The final one was a call to American Express Merchant Services. It was after 5 pm – but I tried calling anyway. I got an operator after pressing zero only one time! (wow!) When I explained that I wanted to close the account - the operator asked me why. I explained – and she offered to reimburse me for 6 months of fees and created a better solution where I would not have monthly fees.  

I did not even ask for a refund -  they offered it!  Then they made it so easy to do business with them - I could not find a reason to leave!

Now that is one SMART company!

In 5 minutes I was refunded 30 dollars and had a pleasant conversation- and remained a customer! Now there was a company that was easy to do business with!  Easy like Sunday morning even!

I thanked the operator and told her how I she had been the easiest call I had all day. She laughed and told me the same was for her – that I had been her easiest call.

The lesson I learned was that even big companies can have customer friendly policies. Most do not – but creating easier ways for a customer to do business with you can make everyone’s day a lot less stressful and enable them to be more efficient!

This opened a whole new door for me to re-examine my policies and determine how I can be easier to do business with. If you are having a lot of push back or difficulties with clients – chances are – you are not that easy to do business with.

Is it time for a change? I mean really – isn’t life complicated enough?  If you are looking to create more customer loyalty, streamline your processes and make it easier for people to do business with you – why not consider a coach? More information on coaching here

Creating Massive change - all by my little lonesome self!

At some point over the last several months, massive change occurred in my life. I cannot tell you what day or what time it was that this happened. 

In fact, I can honestly say that at no time did I come to the huge realization that I wanted to make things different in my life. There was no tear jerking movie, no speaker with a killer keynote and no tragedy that sparked the realization and influenced the decision. 

If I were to get very clear on how the massive change happened – I would have to say it happened easily and occurred seamlessly. How?

I just started doing things differently. That’s it. I began by changing one small thing at a time. Just one thing. 

When did I make the first small change and what was it?  I cannot lay a finger on it - it is a mystery even to me.

What I do know is that at some point I came to understand that our lives are made of very small moments in time. Each one those moments connects with the last moment and the next moment to create a minute, an hour, a day and in essence a lifetime. 

In each of those moments we make decisions, some conscious and some not so conscious. Yes, we make thousands of decisions every day – many of them based on a decision we made yesterday and even years ago.

Each one of these decisions in and of itself may have very little effect on our lives in the moment – and so we think that they are insignificant. But we fool ourselves if we think this way.


Take for example - that one chocolate. It has very little affect on our weight.  It is of little significance if we pop just one into our mouth – in fact it may even have a temporary beneficial effect. (oooh those taste buds!)  How can something so small be bad for us?

Then there is the morning we decide it really is ok to sleep in an extra hour – or hit the snooze button one more time. How could a few extra moments of snuggly, sleepy, dream filled moments hurt us? It’s pretty obvious – it cannot.

However, our lives are the sum total of each of these small decisions we make.  You get to decide if they are detrimental only after all the decisions added up will be the outcome you desire.

I guess the moment when I realized this – although I still cannot say when it was – I began to become present in the moment and consider each thing that I did. In a way, I stepped outside of myself and looked in. What was Mandie doing right now – and why was she doing it?

It was a simple step really. It did not take any extra effort to be present in the moment. And so when I wandered to the cupboard for that one cookie that wouldn’t really hurt to eat – I thought about the decision to eat it. I asked myself when was the last time I decided that one cookie would not hurt – and when would be the next time? Was I really tricking myself, little by little?

The same thing applied to things I did in my professional life. I began to stay present in the moment. Was what I was telling a client entirely true? Would I really have time to do what I said I would do? Was I telling stories or truths? Was I listening or thinking?

As people around me made new year’s resolutions – I decided not to. Massive change all at one time is unmanageable. In order to create massive change we need to change only one small thing – and that is the decision we make right now. Not yesterday’s decision and not tomorrow’s decision.

Have I seen massive change in my life? Most certainly. I am losing weight – because I am making one small decision at a time. I can get up at 5:30 each morning to go work out – not with one big decision to do so, but by making one small choice to set the alarm for 5:30 and then trust myself to make a good decision when it goes off in the morning. And if I do not make the right decision in the morning – I think about how it felt to let myself down like that.

But in my business is where these changes are showing up most. Each thing I do – I do for a purpose. If there is no purpose – I ask myself why I am doing it – and then change to something that does have a purpose. And most importantly, I am present in the moment. It is when we are not present that we repeat bad decisions, bad behaviours and nothing changes.

Do you want to make your business more successful? Start small. Change how you do things – mimic the successful. One small step at a time. One month from now, all those little changes will amount to massive change. A year from now – you might look back as I am doing now, and ask yourself “when did things change?”

Those small decisions really add up. What will you change today?

Copyright 2010 Mandie Crawford

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