Shahriar's Scrapbook

' Loyal Customer ' is one of the key pillars for building a " Great Organization ". Here the term 'Great' does not refer to 'financially sound' organization; instead a 'Great' organization delivers the 04 key results - (1) Sustained Superior Performance (2) Loyal Customers (3) Engaged Employees (4) Distinctive Contribution. [Ref: The 8th Habits: From Effectiveness to Greatness, Dr. Stephen R. Covey ] Now when we talk about ' Loyal Customer ' we need to understand its meaning first. On our basic understanding, we call a customer 'Loyal', who buys frequently from us. But the meaning of 'Loyal Customer' has been evolved dramatically. We understand a customer is 'Loyal', when he/she not only buys from us regularly, but also recommends us to others (word-of-mouth); precisely ' the customer who creates customers '. The New York Times Bestselling Author and No#01 Customer Service Guru, Ron Kaufman has illus...

“Value The Relationship More Than The Quota.” – Jeff Gitomer A remarkable transformation has been taken place in the sales techniques in last several decades. Those days have gone, whenever sellers & buyers met the intention was only to sale and therefore, sales efforts focused on selling products/services as much as possible. Instead, today the approach, the meeting formats and tones of a sales person have been evolved. Hard selling practice has been replaced mostly by Customer/Relationship focused selling. Relationship is in the heart of sales process. How we build and maintain the relationship with our customers bring out results. The more we, Sales professionals, gain credibility & trust, the more we get results and customers also appreciate the approach. An interesting matrix " Efforts vs. Results " we need to understand to determine our sales approach. This matrix works at a simpler, yet powerful way to trigger our minds to evaluate and change our existing way...

In my father’s garden there are two cages. In one is a lion, which my father’s slaves brought from the desert of Ninavah; in the other is a songless sparrow. Every day at dawn the sparrow calls to the lion, “Good morrow to thee, brother prisoner.”  - The Two Cages, The Madman by Kahlil Gibran The above quote from Khalil Gibran depicts how Self-awareness is important for all of us. It helps us to build & grow any relationship in our personal & professional life, irrespective of our profession. There are two significant ways of becoming more self-aware. The first involves listening to yourself to understand what causes your reactions or feelings and to look at how you react. We have a tendency to ignore our reactions to people and the world around us, but we can make our feelings and reactions more conscious if we raise our awareness and work on these things. The second way to become more aware is to ask for feedback from other people about how they see you and how they react...

In the world of Internet Customer Service, it’s important to remember your competitor is only one mouse click away. ~  Doug Warner In our last article, we discussed about customer interaction and how it is linked with customer loyalty. This article follows same theme " Customer Loyalty " and discusses about Six levels of customer service. Ron Kaufman (www.ronkaufman.com), author of " UP Your Service! " has come up in his legendary book with the Six levels of Customer Service , The levels are as following: Criminal Service Undoubtedly, criminal service the poorest one, where the organization fails to meet the minimum expectation of the customers. Hence, customers become really frustrated with the service provider and surely will not come again to take service. Even they will call the concerned person to show his/her frustration and complain. Also they may spread negative 'word-of-mouth' in the market. Basic Service This is when the customers get the bar minim...

The purpose of a business is to create a Customer who creates Customers. - Shiv Singh Foundation In today's world ' Customer Loyalty ' has been identified as one of the four factors to achieve ' Organizational Greatness '. Here, the 'Greatness' is not considered from financial perspective only, rather from a different perspective, which includes growth, sustainability, people development etc. Now, the question is, who are ' Loyal Customers '? Today the meaning of loyalty has been changed. It is no more inherited, means I'm buying from you only because my dad used to buy from you! Rather we can define ' Loyal Customers ' as - 'Customers who create more Customers', means those who not only buy our products/services repeatedly, but also promote us by saying good things (good word-of-mouth) about our products/services to others. Here we have another term to define - ' Moment of Truth '. Jan Carlzon, President of Scandinavian A...

"Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it." --Boethius Defining Stress and How it Affects Us Can we define what we mean by stress? Stress is our mental, physical, and behavioral response to anxiety-producing events. Too much stress can result in serious physical, psychological, interpersonal, or performance problems.  The amount of stress that we experience depends on how much stress we have, how long we have it, and how we are able to manage it. Stress can be caused by anything in your life. In fact, the experts have different theories on what causes the largest amount of stress for individuals. According to Peter Hansen, best-selling author of several books about stress, work and the workplace causes most of our stress.  According to the Holmes-Rahe stress scale, the greatest single stressors come from our personal lives What is Stress? A widely accepted definition of stress, attributed to ps...

Have you ever decided not to hire someone because "something just didn't feel right"? Would you ask your boss for more resources when the boss is having "a bad day" Do you take a different approach when dealing with a disgruntled customer? How might you help motivate an under-performing team member to succeed? "In the last decade or so, science has discovered a tremendous amount about the role emotions play in our lives. Researchers have found that even more than IQ, your emotional awareness and abilities to handle feelings will determine your success and happiness in all walks of life…” - John Gottman Emotional Intelligence involves a set of skills that define how effectively you perceive, understand, reason with and manage your own and others' feelings. These skills are important at work as emotions are an inherent part of workplace activities at all levels. Research studies suggest that Emotional Intelligence makes a difference in the workplace, in...