Hugh’s Words of Wisdom Wednesday for August 12, 2020: Embrace the word ‘serve’.
Video Notes:
Hello, everyone. Hugh Blane here with Hugh's Words of Wisdom Wednesday for August 12, 2020.
This week, I want to talk to you about the word serve. We experienced a little bit of a medical emergency this week with our dog, Remy. Remy is a Giant Schnauzer and is 14 months old. My wife noticed that on the inside of his mouth, there was some nasty looking growth on his gums. It turned it's a particular virus that is incredibly contagious.
We learned that the virus has a recovery time of between two and six months. During the recovery, Remy would be unable to go to the park and would not be able to be around other dogs. Now, this becomes very disconcerting for us because that's how we burn the energy out of a 14 month-old dog.
Alyson called a very reputable veterinarian's office because she read about a study that said there is a particular naturopathic protocol that would reduce the recovery time from eight weeks down to two. Well, that would be a godsend for us.
In calling the vet's office, she spoke with a surly frontline employee who was completely unhelpful and quickly wanted to get off the phone. The interaction was so negative that Alyson felt compelled to write a review that was not complimentary after having a phone call of seventy-five seconds. Within seventy-five seconds, one employee tarnished Alyson's view of this clinic and prompted her to write a negative review. Seventy-five seconds!
Do you think in COVID-19 days you can have an employee on the frontline with your customers who does not extend grace and service towards somebody else?
Is it wise to have an employee not look at every phone call as a possibility to grow your business, to expand your business, to keep your customers happy?
You cannot afford to have this happen. But this employee did and facilitated a negative review from someone that could have been a very good customer.
Now, Alyson is tenacious. She wrote to a veterinarian in India who wrote a paper on the protocol of this particular medicine. And within 24 hours, he replied and said, "I'm happy to help. Here's what I suggest. And please follow up with me in 7 days." He's in India, and we're not a paying customer. Why is there a difference in the responses? The mindset of serving and helping.
Any employee in your organization who doesn't understand that generous and gracious service is required on every phone call should not be on the front line because it will kill your business.
Every employee who comes in contact with the customer needs to love the customer. They need to love their work, and it needs to be expressed to the customer.
Would you agree with this statement? We are what we are based on what's in our hearts. If our hearts are cold and indifferent we cannot help but be cold and indifferent to those around us.
If you do, there are three things leaders and team members need to thrive in their work. They need to:
Love Deeply.
Learn Daily.
Live/lead Boldly.
Love Deeply: Love the customer, love their fellow employees, and love their work. These are foundational to greatness and excellence in any endeavor.
Learn Daily: Learn what I did yesterday that was not ideal and set up to get better tomorrow. Learning is key to
Live Boldly: Living boldly is a mindset issue that if you love something and you're learning about it, then you're willing and enthusiastic about extending it for another person's benefit. Living boldly can be as simple as extending love to a customer, to another employee, and doing it generously.
So, ladies and gentlemen, when you think about your frontline employees, do they love deeply, are they learning daily, and living boldly? If not, what can you do today to role model them?
That's it. I hope this was helpful. If I can answer any questions, please let me know how I might serve you and your organization.
Live boldly.
Hugh