Are you a good customer?

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog about good customer service and experience. Some of you responded with your thoughts and comments and felt this was an important subject in our lives and more people should pay attention to it.

My son and I also had a good discussion about this topic and he gave me some pointers about the other side of this subject. When he was in San Diego going to college, he had a part-time job in a restaurant. He told me many horror stories about obnoxious, rude and intolerable customers. He said how the waiters did not want to serve some of these customers as they knew it wouldn’t be a good experience for both sides and probably no tip at the end.

Last week I was at our grocery store and had to stop at the bank within the grocery store. There was a person in front of me waiting for the next teller and was talking loudly on her cell phone arguing with the other person on the line. She had no checks or any other paper work ready in her hands. When the next teller became available, she walked up to the window, continued to talk on her phone and started to look for her paper work in her large purse. The teller was looking at her and was waiting to take care of her business. This person continued to search her purse while continuing to talk on her phone and completely ignoring the teller. She finally gave up and told me to go in front of her so she can find her paper work. The teller quietly told me that she sees this kind of behavior every day and feels these customers are discourteous and makes it difficult to give them good service.

After this incident and the discussion with my son, it made me think that if we, as the customers, need to behave in certain ways in order to receive good customer service. There may be a need for a code of ethics for being a good customer!

How can we expect good customer service if we act rude, annoying and disrespectful?  How people can be cheerful and want to provide good service to us despite of these behaviors?

Good customer service should not be a magical thing that happens occasionally. It should happen all the time as customer service takes place between two people as they interact with each other. They should treat each other as they like to be treated. If both sides considered each other needs and acted politely, genuinely, and respectfully then we get good customer experience. My mom always reminded me that “if you want respect, you need to give respect.”

So next time you are getting a bad service, take a few seconds to assess the situation and make sure you are not causing it. If a waiter in a restaurant made a mistake with your food, there is no reason to yell at him and treat him disrespectfully. Have some patience and give people a chance to correct their problems. Besides, they can do so many bad things with your food that you don’t want to know.

Of course if the problem continues, then there is cause for dissatisfaction and displeasure. But even then, there is a courteous way of reporting your problem to the manger and the company. Again, yelling about your problem to the manger and belittling the person that gave you bad service, will not ensure good service.

Throughout the entire process of a service, you have a lot to do with the outcome of the experience. You will receive good service if you are considerate of another human being and make them feel good about their job. You will receive bad service if you are not treating them well, which in turn they won’t feel like giving you their best.

So, what annoying things we as the customers should not be doing during a service interaction? Help me to make a top ten list!

Everyday Heroes

The real test of compassion is not what we say in abstract discussions but how we conduct ourselves in daily life. – The Dalai Lama

This past weekend, Sheri and I participated in a road rally called GG2H (Golden Gate to Hollywood). There were about 70 luxury and exotic cars (Ferraris, Lamborghinis, McLarens, Aston Martins, etc.) and we went from Golden Gate Bridge to Hollywood. I want to give you some details about an incident that happened during this rally but mainly want to focus on what we saw and learned about some courageous people, which really impressed me.

Our route took us down Hwy. 101 to Atascadero where we had lunch and then continued on Hwy. 41, 58, 33 and 166 to Hwy. 5 just north of Grapevine. This 125-mile stretch of two-lane rural highways is great if you want to go over the speed limit since there are hardly any cars on them! We only encountered two cars, which they courteously pulled over for our caravan.

We were in the first five cars in the caravan and were enjoying this drive a bit over the speed limit :)) After a while, I noticed that I could not see any of the cars behind me. The last part of Hwy. 58 was very twisty and was hard to see anyone behind us. We finally got to some straight sections and pulled over at a gas station and waited for others to catch up.

While we were waiting, we saw several fire trucks and ambulances going up toward the area we just had come from. It gave me an uncomfortable feeling wondering if anything had happened to our caravan.

Finally, several other cars came through and we all gathered at the gas station. This is when we learned one of the cars (a Nissan GT-R) had skidded off the road, rolled several times and landed on its roof in a ravine. The car behind it (a souped-up Mercedes Benz C-63 AMG) immediately pulled over and the driver ran out to help. Since it was a hot day (about 98 degrees) and our cars were hot from going fast, the brushes under the Mercedes caught on fire and immediately engulfed the car in flames and burned it completely. The fire jumped to both sides of the freeway and caused a large brush fire.

Others also stopped and started to help. People went down the ravine, broke the windows and pulled the driver and the passenger out. Some tried to put the fire out on the Mercedes with their small fire extinguishers but were not as successful. Since there was no cell reception in this area, some people drove down the hill to an area where they can call 911. The two people in the rolled over car were taken to the hospital and thankfully only suffered some cuts, bruises, and nothing serious.

This incident changed the atmosphere of our rally. During the reception, dinner, and after party everyone was talking about this incident and showing their concerns about the people that had suffered.

I think adversity and/or crisis shows the true character of a person. During a crisis, people do band together and it is when our true humanity shows. As the result of this event more friendships were formed and brought many people closer.

In this road rally incident, I learned how there are so many everyday heroes. These were people that we may not necessarily think as “heroes”, but when the situation arose, they forgot all about themselves and rushed to help others. They were willing to run down a hill toward a car that might catch on fire at any time. They were willing to put their own lives in danger and pull injured people to safety. They were willing to watch their own car go up in flames while they were trying to help others. They were willing to put their own inconvenience aside and become a part of a cause to help others. They were willing to pull together and provide encouragement and assistance to others. They were willing to give up their own fun and pleasure and become concerned over someone else’s loss. These are everyday heroes amongst us!

People do extraordinary things every day, especially during crisis. They share their time, resources, and affection. They show incredible strength and courage. We have seen numerous examples of this during several recent disasters in this country. These people inspire us by their examples and I witnessed many of them during this rally.

Of course, we should not need a crisis to band together and show our true humanity. Friends can help each other in times of adversity – and even strangers can rise to act of heroism when the situation demands it. If we can help friends or even strangers in times of adversity, why can’t we help someone right now, when there is no adversity? What small thing can we do today for someone, even someone we don’t know?

Let’s not wait.

Who Really Is In Charge of Customer Service

First, let’s start with a positivity quote:

”A positive attitude may not solve all of your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.”

Last week, Sheri and I witnessed a situation that caused me to think about great customer service. This is a practice that I am personally passionate about and when I don’t receive great customer service, it irritates me.

One of the most important things that I have learned, practiced and trained others during my career was the art of great customer service. After all, customers are the ones that are spending their money with a company, and they provide the funding for the existence and the survival of that company. Apparently, many people at many establishments have forgotten about this important rule and where their paychecks come from.

Back to my example of a bad service, as I said, I was with Sheri taking care of some errands last week. She needed to return a small paintbrush (for her Art Studio) and buy some additional art supplies at a local large chain store who shall stay unnamed. We went to the “Customer Service” desk to make the return and then go on with the rest of her shopping. The paintbrush she was returning was only $1.95 but was the wrong kind. The person at the register took the item and the receipt and made the return in the cash register. Then, she got on the overhead pager and paged the manager for approval!!!

Are you kidding me?!!!

Do you really need to call a manager to return $1.95 to a person who shops there a lot and has her receipt with her?!!!

Do you really need to keep me waiting at the desk while the manager gets there to approve this $1.95 return?!!!

Furthermore, once the manager arrived, he didn't check anything other than typing his password in the computer system. Total waste of our time, the clerk’s time and the manager’s time.

In this case, the person behind the desk is not at fault. It is the store policy that prevents customers from receiving good service. It is the store that has not given their employees proper training and don’t have the trust in them to handle a $1.95 return. Just imagine, how many times similar incidents happen in a day, a week or a month. How much time is wasted by everyone for such a small transaction approval and how much a company adds to their costs for this wasted time. I understand the need for approval process and I don’t have a problem with managers approving much larger amounts but please make it reasonable and not for every single transaction.

I have witnessed many similar situations and I believe all of them relate to the company’s lack of understanding of a great customer experience. Many companies put more emphasis on their internal processes and procedures than providing great customer service. In today’s economy, companies must put the emphasis on the customer and not on the internal processes; otherwise competition will take them over. Technology has been a great tool in solving many of the internal processes so customer service can become even better. Furthermore, good enough is not good enough. Excellence separates a great business from an ordinary business. When you find these great companies you know it and I’ll bet you will go back to that place of business again and again.

We all have various types of customers in life. When our spouse needs something from us, she becomes our customer. When someone in the community depends on our services, they become our customers. And we are familiar with the customers we have at work. Let’s make sure we are all doing our best to provide excellence and WOW our customers. It makes our spouses happy, our community happy and our business customers happy. Not only it does make these customers feel good about you, it makes you feel good about yourself and that is a positive living.

What 4th of July Means to Me

As I was pondering about various topics for my next blog, I felt it would be fitting to write about the upcoming 4^th of July, our country’s Independence Day. I thought I’d share with you what this day means to me, as someone that migrated to this country and had to learn about its history and this important date.

As you may know, I came to this country about 38 years ago to attend college. I had planned to go back as soon as I had received my degree in Civil Engineering to help build and expand Iran’s infrastructure. As it turned out, there was a revolution in Iran in 1979 that changed lives of many people - including mine. As the result, I ended up staying here, became a US citizen, and started contributing to this society and this nation.

The goal of the revolution in Iran was to achieve a similar result as the revolution that happened in 1776 in United States. However, it did not.

In my early years in America, it was easy to conclude that the day on which we celebrate our hard-won independence from England is merely a pause to blow up some colorful explosives, have big gatherings by the pool or at the beach, cook all kinds of meat over an open flame and get some good deals on major appliances. And, of course, drink lots of beer. I did not quite understand the true meaning of 4th of July until some years later when I learned more about the history of this country, the sacrifices that was made to get to this point, and the benefits we are getting from it.

As I think about this American celebration, I think about the true meaning of it and what it means to me as one of the country’s newer members. It means FREEDOM. It is about an idea that was revolutionary then and is still revolutionary now. It is an ideology, which is the envy of many countries around the world.

Americans don't know what it means to live in an oppressive society. They don't know what it means to be afraid of saying the wrong thing at the risk of their life. They don't know what it means to work hard all of their life only to have it taken away by others. They don't know what it means to be punished and put in jail because of their beliefs. They don't know what it means to live where woman are buried alive because of their gender and have no importance other than bearing a child. Independence Day reminds me to treasure the freedoms we have here, especially since many don’t. It reminds me that such freedoms were earned by the blood of many to gain and, to this day, by the blood of many to keep.

I also see Independence Day as a symbol that these freedoms can be achieved by others who want it badly enough. As we look around the world, there are many countries that still live under oppressive governments, and our 4th of July is a reminder that it doesn't always have to be that way. It is a symbol of hope that one day everyone will enjoy the same or even greater liberties that we have here.

In a time when many deficiencies in our government divides us more than it unites us, it is too easy to be negative and forget about the precious freedom that we have. But, we still could debate these issues because we have the freedom to do so without the fear of punishment!

So I suggest, as we celebrate our 4th of July holiday with parties, BBQs, beers and great discounts on LCD TVs, we also think positively and proudly about the freedom we have, how we attained it, how we preserved it, and how we are leading the world to demonstrate it.