Word Of the Week #538: Feed Egos
November 27, 2014 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #538: Feed Egos
Feed Egos: how you make your customers, guests, members, or clients feel important, valued and respected.
When was the last time a salesperson made you feel important? If I asked your staff or co-workers would they say you make them feel valued and respected? How often do you encounter a sales/customer service person who is rude, indifferent or incompetent?
This is #7 of my 7 Simple Steps of Service. In my book, The FUN-damental Secrets of Service, I wrote this about feeding egos, “People like to feel that they are important in the world; that they have value and that other people respect them. And I am going to share with you four ways to do just that.
- People like to feel good about spending their money. And my FUN-damental Service Secret #5 is “Make your customers feel
good about spending their money.” Spending money is a treat. It is a sign to yourself that you are a successful person, that you have achieved a certain level of status, that you have a certain amount of control over your life. Don’t make it a hassle for them to buy from you. - People don’t want to have their intelligence insulted. That means when you talk to them you use words and terms they understand. A resourceful sales/customer service person asks us leading questions, lets us do a lot of the talking, and points out the advantages of a product in simple terms.
- People want to be skillfully guided in their purchases. Buying is fun, but it’s also stressful, especially when we are making important decisions. We’re concerned about buying an inferior brand, or about paying too much, or about getting poor follow-up service. We don’t want to appear ignorant or make a mistake. We look to professionals to supply is with the information and choices, and then help us make decisions.
- People don’t like to lose arguments. A customer is neither an enemy nor an interruption. They are the reason for your employment. YOU WILL NEVER WIN IF YOU ARGUE WITH A CUSTOMER. You may score a momentary victory, but then you risk losing them as a customer forever and bad word-of-mouth.
One of my favorite quotes is “WHEN YOU LEARN TO FEED PEOPLE’S EGOS, THEY WILL SEEK YOU OUT AND FORCE MONEY INTO YOUR HANDS.” And boy was that true when I was a server!
This week focus on feeding egos. Do you listen to your customers, guests, members, or clients and help guide them with their purchases? Do you take the hassle out their buying experience by not being rude, indifferent, or incompetent? When was the last time a sales/customer service person treated you with respect and valued your business? How did that make you feel?
I LOVE feedback! Join my Facebook community on my FUN-damentals Fan Page.
Word Of the Week #17: Feed Egos
April 20, 2009 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #17: Feed Egos
Feed Egos: how you make your customers, guests, clients, and members feel special and important.
Ultimate Ego Feeder
Do you know that when you feed people’s egos they will seek you out and force money in your hands? It’s true!
You can’t feed other peoples egos when yours gets in the way. Leave yours at home! Ego is all about self esteem. When you truly come from a place of serving others, and feel good about who you are, it’s very easy to feed others egos.
So how can you “feed” an ego? First, have a goal each day of making your customers, guests and members feel good about spending their money with you. Make them enjoy doing business with you and they will want to come back again and again. Secondly, never get in an argument. You will lose every time! Feeding egos is about letting people be right. We have all heard the saying, “the customer is always right.” Although we know that is not the case every time, you can treat them in such a way that they feel right without you feeling wrong.
Focus on doing as much for your customers, guests and members as you can. In other words, bending over backwards to take care of them. Watch the response you get and how it makes you feel.
Reader Responses
“Your tip reminded me of something that happened with a Walgreens customer last year. In the Walgreens weekly circular, we sell neon lights in various shapes, including electric guitars. Now, a 58-year-old woman in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, saw this in our circular and wrote a letter of complaint to Walgreens Chairman. In the letter she noted that Walgreens should not be promoting such a sexual item in its ads, with the male member entering a female. Apparently, the neon electric guitar was not labeled in the ad and that was what SHE saw. Some Rohrshach Test, huh? In his response, our chairman thanked her for pointing out the ad and that Walgreens was remiss for not labeling the item in the ad. And in the future, we would be more careful about what we picture in the circulars. In the interim, the woman’s son saw what troubled her in the ad and thought she had overreacted. When she received our Chairman’s reply, she wrote back embarrassed but said that because of how he had responded to her letter that she would tell everyone to shop at Walgreens from here on out. Our Chairman gave the customer the benefit of the doubt and put the onus on Walgreens. She was very pleased. This is a good example of letting the customer know she is right, without making an example of her. Great tip! — “Warrior” Joe Moran
“Touche! Bull’s eye! Another home run by Susan! Here is my take on this issue: often when our members request (demand) something, I try (gently) to remind them that his or her fellow member has requested a consideration of the opposite. So it is not really me who counters but my interaction with other members giving me the insight into the many (opposing) expectations from our members. It works great and takes the heat off the manager by displaying a listening and caring approach.” — Kurt J. Bishofberger
“Regarding this topic, I like the saying “The customer is NOT always right, but they are still the customer.” — David Keeler