How to Prevent Incremental Degradation.

How to Prevent Incremental Degradation
By Michael Masterson
One of the first things I did upon taking on AP as a client was call his customer service line, pretending to be a customer. The phone rang eight times before it was picked up. Then I was put on hold. Then someone answered by saying, "What?"
This was an $8 million company.
Businesses hire me to help them grow. But growing a company with terrible customer service is like building a house on quicksand. It just doesn't work.
So I postponed any marketing discussions while I revamped AP's entire customer service process.
I replaced most of the staff with better-educated, more articulate, and more conscientious workers. I introduced a training program. I implemented automated monitoring and reporting systems. And I established progressively higher standards for everything from call waiting through problem solving.
Within six months, service went from embarrassing to best of show. Then I hired a very good manager to continue the program. With her in place, I was able to do the job I was hired to do: improve marketing and increase sales.
I wish that were the end of the story. It is not. About four years later, a colleague, in the midst of a conversation about something else, made a comment about how everyone in the industry believed that AP's customer service was "a joke."
I was shocked. And when I checked into it, I was floored. The person I'd hired had left. And the top-notch operation I had worked so hard to set up was back to providing horrendously bad service.
Nothing had gone dramatically wrong. The new customer service manager had been given my guidelines but wasn't as careful about implementing them. The college-educated people I'd hired had moved up in the company and been replaced with less qualified people. Other standards were relaxed - just a bit - to save money.
It was a classic case of incremental degradation. Physicists call this entropy - the natural tendency of things in the universe to move from order to disorder.
It is true of all aspects business (and life). But none as surely and with more damaging consequences than customer service. Unless you constantly strive to improve service all the time, it will degenerate. Not in leaps and bounds but in small, sometimes imperceptible degrees. Only after several years will the difference be obvious.
Why does it happen?
I don't know. Admittedly, people are inherently lazy. So that's part of it. But I think another reason is that many business owners simply don't care about customer service.
So let's pin it on laziness and apathy. But identifying the cause doesn't eliminate the problem.
To combat incremental degradation in your organization you must make a very active and sustained effort. And the best way to do this is to initiate a culture of incremental augmentation.
By incremental augmentation I mean constantly making good things better. When it comes to customer service, that means consistently asking yourself, "How can we provide even better service?"
Constantly making good service better. That is a high standard, indeed. One that must be embraced by everyone in your organization. And responsibility starts at the top.
The customer service manager who'd replaced the woman I hired talked a great game. But I could tell by his actions that he didn't really care. And why didn't he care? Because his boss at the time, AP's CEO, didn't care. He didn't read the reports. He didn't check in with the managers. He neither rewarded good work nor fired poor performers. That was what cracked the foundation of the program.
You can see how this plays out with many airline carriers, hotel chains, and fast-food franchises. Although the standards and procedures for customer service are top-notch and state-of-the art, the actual service is often miserable.
This is not the fault of the individuals providing the crappy service. The blame has to be placed on their managers.
When you walk into a filthy McDonald's staffed by insolent kids who handle your food after sneezing or coughing into their hands - you can be absolutely sure that they are NOT meeting the standards established by the parent company. Something bad happened between the time protocols were established and what is currently happening. That thing is bad management.
The same is true when you get inattentive or even abusive service at a Marriott or Holiday Inn. Yes, the receptionist or valet may be a lunkhead. But the real problem is with the higher-paid people managing them.
I don't believe these managers are creating bad service on purpose (although I admit to having had that suspicion on occasion). They have gone through interviews and training programs. And at one time, they knew and practiced the high standards their employers want to meet. But because they were (a) not personally committed to those standards and/or (b) did nothing active to maintain them, things gradually and progressively fell apart.
I'm staying at the upscale Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills as I write this. I have been here at least a half-dozen times. Today, for the first time ever, I experienced an instant of bad customer service. I came up to the rooftop terrace and told the hostess I wanted to smoke my cigar and work on my laptop. She said, "We have no tables now. We are booked."
I said, "Can you find something for me? I just need a chair and a table in a corner somewhere. I don't want to disturb anyone with the smoke." She seemed upset with me for asking. She answered, almost rudely, "I'll see what I can do."
For five minutes, I waited for her to return, feeling like a homeless bum. Finally, a young man approached. "Can I help you?" he asked. But with a guarded, almost defensive, tone. I said, "What?" He replied, "I'm sorry, are you staying with us?" I told him that I had been for some time. That I had always received impeccable service. But that now, for the first time, I was being treated "almost rudely."
Realizing that I wasn't whatever kind of monster the hostess had taken me for - and recognizing that this was not how patrons of the Peninsula Hotel expected to be treated - he led me to a tented pavilion by the pool, gave me complimentary beverages, and apologized profusely for the woman's behavior. (It was, he said, her first day.) By doing all of this, he restored my opinion of the hotel to its former, lofty perch.
There is only one way you can provide top-quality service to your customers. First... and most important... you must want to provide it. You must want to do so not only because you believe it is good business but also because it gives you pride.
The other thing you must do is to apply your standards with persistence. It is not enough to set up a good program and hire a good person and then let it go. That didn't work for me. It doesn't work for McDonald's. And it wouldn't work at the Peninsula Hotel either. You must view customer service as something that, if left alone, will deteriorate. And that means it must be constantly paid attention to.
At the moment, I am watching two men in suits hovering over one of the teak tables in the Peninsula's rooftop restaurant. They are examining, almost microscopically, the slats of the wood. They are running their fingers over the surface to make sure there are no splinters. And they are crouching down to look at the sides of the slats to make sure no particles of food have accumulated there. They are fussing over the cleanliness and functionality of these tables much like you might expect Michelangelo to have fussed over the Pieta.
It is hot. Maybe 85 degrees in the sun. One of them takes a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe the perspiration from his forehead. They are discussing the table as if it matters. As if it would be a terrible thing if one of their guests got a splinter reaching for his fork or if, glancing down from his paper, he noticed a smudge of yesterday's Eggs Benedict.
And to the people who come here - to the people who pay $350 and $450 and $950 per night to stay at the Peninsula - it does matter.

SO SWEET PICTURE OF THIS DAY.

Secret Scrolls message

Whatever you want to bring into your life, you must GIVE it. Do you want love? Then give it. Do you want appreciation? Then give it. Do you want understanding? Then give it. Do you want joy and happiness? Then give it to others.
You have the ability to give so much love, appreciation, understanding, and happiness to so many people every single day!

The Secret Scrolls .

Here are four fundamental things to do to manifest money using the law of attraction.
1. Think more thoughts in a day of abundance than of lack of money.
2. Be happy now, without the money.
3. Be truly grateful for everything you have now.
4. Give the best of yourself to others.
Four easy steps. You can do them if you want it enough.

May the joy be with you,
Rhonda Byrne
The Secret... bringing joy to billions .

Motivational picture of the day !

Motivational picture of the day !

Do You Own Your Business - or Does It Own You ?

By Michael Masterson
Hal looked tired when he arrived at the restaurant.
"You look beat," I told him.
"I am," he said. "I've been working nonstop, running from my home in Canada to my office in Honduras and then visiting all my projects in Central America. I'm too old for this."
"How long have you been working at this pace?" I asked him.
"About 20 years now. Since I left the corporate world and got into my own business."
Hal's "business" was designing beach houses. His clients were mostly North Americans who had expatriated to Central America. He had a good reputation and that kept his small firm busy. He has designed and built dozens of great buildings. With a partner, he virtually transformed a small fishing port on the Great Lakes into a thriving, upscale village.
But he was only netting about $90,000 a year.
"You started with nothing, and you've built so many beautiful things," I told him. "You know all sorts of interesting people, have friends all over the world, and enjoy a lifestyle many people would envy. Except you work too hard and make too little money."
"Amen," he said.
This is a common problem for talented people who start businesses without understanding how businesses work. They're not what I would call a business at all. I call them self-employment companies.
A self-employment-company is one in which the success of the business depends on how long and hard you work. Many professionals fall into this category: lawers, doctors, physical therapists, and sports trainers, to name a few.
I'm not knocking self-employment businesses. They can have some definite advantages over working as an employee. For example, you will usually enjoy:
a higher income
a sense of accomplishment
significant control over what you do
That's a lot. Hal and others in his position are better off than they would be working for someone else. But there are two important things they don't have:
the potential for unlimited income
an asset that can be sold for a great deal of money
A real business to me is one that doesn't forever depend on the owner. After the start-up, it can grow and produce more cash and become more valuable as the entrepreneur gradually works less.
Several of my clients have such businesses. They worked hard in the beginning but now they hardly work at all. They have people running their operations. They stop by every once in a while to check on things. If they don't want to stop in, they can have their profits wired to their personal accounts.
The other big advantage of real businesses is that they develop equity. Equity means real value - something you can sell. One of my clients is virtually retired from his business. But he still makes tens of millions of dollars a year from it. And if he ever sells it, he could probably get a billion dollars.
I gave a speech last week at a Dan Kennedy event. Afterward, I signed books for several hundred people. Many of them wanted to talk to me about their businesses. Of those I spoke to, many had self-employment companies.
One young couple had started a fitness training service. They were the trainers. They were charging a good deal of money: $80 an hour for their time. They seemed happy about it and so I congratulated them. But then they asked the right question: "So do you think this is a good business?"
I asked them what their objective was. Were they happy making a hundred grand a year (which is about all they could do)? No, they said. They wanted to become rich.
"Well then," I said, "You need to understand something." And I told them what I am telling you today.
If you want to earn a good living doing something you like, a self-employment company may be right for you. But if you want unlimited income and the chance to make money without working long hours, you have to have a real business.
How do you tell if you have a real business or a self-employment company? Answer the following questions:
Does your income depend on how many hours you work?
If your customers discovered that you were no longer actively working, would they continue patronizing your business?
If you decided to stop working next month, would your employees be able to run your business without you?
Could you sell your business for a lot of money - enough to retire on?
If you answered "yes" to all of the above, congratulate yourself. You are the owner of a valuable business.
If you answered "no" to any of them, you need to consider the advice I gave to the two young trainers - the same advice I gave to my friend Hal:
Make yourself less important.
Understand that every business has two aspects: producing a product/service and selling it. As an owner of a real business, you don't want to be the product/service provider. You want to be the marketer.
Being the marketer means you will work in the background. That means less glory but more money and free time.
It is gratifying to know that your customers want you on the job. But as long as they feel that way, you are tethered to their schedule. If you want to be able to control your own time - to come to work when you wish, leave when the whim to do so hits you, and take long, worry-free vacations - you must become replaceable.
There is only one way to do that: Find a superstar who has the potential to replace you as the most valuable person in the business. And don't stop when you find one superstar. Two is better. Three is heaven.
The goal is to transform the organization from one that is based on you to one that is driven by marketing. This is a difficult challenge - especially for people who like being "in demand. "But it is essential if you want to sell your business, as a business, sometime in the future.

Motivational picture of the Day.

Secret Scrolls

Stress, worry, and anxiety simply come from projecting your thoughts into the future and imagining something bad. This is focusing on what you don't want! If you find that your mind is projecting into the future in a negative way, focus intensely on NOW. Keep bringing yourself back to the present.
Use all of your will, and focus your mind in this very moment, because in this moment of now there is utter peace.