What are the two things that can ruin a company's sales in this era of sagging and growing consumer concern?
The first is employee morale and the second is customer relations. When consumers are spending, are your company sales flat? The answer is simply lack of focus. Focus on your employees and your customers.
We have all used the Nordstrom's customer service policy and seen what it has meant to its customers' loyalty. Who do you think is constantly training their employees on the subject of customer service? You guessed it, the Nordstroms of the world.
Success comes to all who work for it. The company that is in the flat sales category isn't keeping focused on the two things that need the most attention, customers and employees.
Harvey Mackay is a well-known CEO and author of several bestselling business books on management, including “Swim with the Sharks.” One of his other books has a chapter on creativity killers. In “Pushing the Envelope, All the Way to the Top,” Mackay talks about attending a cocktail party and listening to employees talk about their company management problems.
Mackay says that people let their hair down and seem unafraid to talk with strangers about their company's problems. He listed the top 25 things company managers say to employees to torpedo their morale, which are:
1. It's not in the budget.
2. The boss will never go for it.
3. Great idea! Let's form a committee to tackle it.
4. It will never work.
5. That is against our policy.
6. Who will we get to do it?
7. Let's think about it for awhile.
8. Let's discuss it some other time.
9. Why not leave well enough alone?
10. It's too late to fix it now.
11. It's too soon to fix it now.
12. We have done it this way for so many years, and we still make a profit.
13. Why fix it if it isn't broken?
14. We tried it five years ago and it didn't work.
15. That is not how we do things around here.
16. That is the kind of idea that cost your predecessor her job.
17. It will take a long time to research this idea.
18. That is not my job.
19. The competition already does it that way.
20. The competition doesn't do it that way.
21. Let's let the competition try it first and see what happens.
22. That isn't in our job descriptions.
23. If we do it, they will wonder why we didn't do it sooner.
24. It will create more work for the rest of us.
25. Sounds like a good idea. Let's run it by legal.
Mackay's moral: Cowards die a thousands deaths. Unfortunately, cowards kill thousands of creative ideas before death catches up with them.
With poor employee morale comes poor customer service. I am always reminded of the ultimate in customer service: “The shortest distance between two people is a smile.” Try it and see if I'm not right.
The first is employee morale and the second is customer relations. When consumers are spending, are your company sales flat? The answer is simply lack of focus. Focus on your employees and your customers.
We have all used the Nordstrom's customer service policy and seen what it has meant to its customers' loyalty. Who do you think is constantly training their employees on the subject of customer service? You guessed it, the Nordstroms of the world.
Success comes to all who work for it. The company that is in the flat sales category isn't keeping focused on the two things that need the most attention, customers and employees.
Harvey Mackay is a well-known CEO and author of several bestselling business books on management, including “Swim with the Sharks.” One of his other books has a chapter on creativity killers. In “Pushing the Envelope, All the Way to the Top,” Mackay talks about attending a cocktail party and listening to employees talk about their company management problems.
Mackay says that people let their hair down and seem unafraid to talk with strangers about their company's problems. He listed the top 25 things company managers say to employees to torpedo their morale, which are:
1. It's not in the budget.
2. The boss will never go for it.
3. Great idea! Let's form a committee to tackle it.
4. It will never work.
5. That is against our policy.
6. Who will we get to do it?
7. Let's think about it for awhile.
8. Let's discuss it some other time.
9. Why not leave well enough alone?
10. It's too late to fix it now.
11. It's too soon to fix it now.
12. We have done it this way for so many years, and we still make a profit.
13. Why fix it if it isn't broken?
14. We tried it five years ago and it didn't work.
15. That is not how we do things around here.
16. That is the kind of idea that cost your predecessor her job.
17. It will take a long time to research this idea.
18. That is not my job.
19. The competition already does it that way.
20. The competition doesn't do it that way.
21. Let's let the competition try it first and see what happens.
22. That isn't in our job descriptions.
23. If we do it, they will wonder why we didn't do it sooner.
24. It will create more work for the rest of us.
25. Sounds like a good idea. Let's run it by legal.
Mackay's moral: Cowards die a thousands deaths. Unfortunately, cowards kill thousands of creative ideas before death catches up with them.
With poor employee morale comes poor customer service. I am always reminded of the ultimate in customer service: “The shortest distance between two people is a smile.” Try it and see if I'm not right.