In today's world, the only constant is change. With rare exception, participating in life is difficult without being touched by change. Change permeates our personal lives, our business world, our government, and beyond. Every time you have a date or attend a social event with your significant other, emotions and expectations come into play. While you cannot be a mind reader, if you initially dazzle your partner, minor differences should be forgotten quickly. Remember that dating is just like keeping a customer happy. You need to dazzle your partner or your customer in the first place, and then anticipate his or her needs and wants.

Think for a moment of products and services that were not in common use a decade ago. Think about how they have affected our lives. Cellular phones, personal pagers, modems, fax machines, CD-ROMs, personal computers, the Internet, e-mail, voice mail, and satellite dishes all have revolutionized the way we transmit and receive information. Microwave ovens have altered the speed with which we can prepare food, and the food service industry has responded with new packaging and portions.

No sector of our lives has gone unchanged - there's no escaping change!

Accept

Don't resist the idea of change - or the implementation of change.

We all desperately hold on to the way we've always done things... even if we don't know why we're doing it that way!

We do things "the same old way" because this gives us a feeling of control over our lives and some measure of comfort or security. But, just like the proverbial ostrich burying its head in the sand, ignoring or resisting change won't stop it. Change starts when someone sees the next step.

To ensure a long-term, beneficial relationship, handle your clients respectfully, individually, and attentively.

A profitable business starts and ends with the customer. By placing the customer at the center of all your thinking, you create an environment that fosters long-term success. You hear about certain companies that treat their customers with superior service and others that ignore them.

A key component of success lies in your company's capability to generate repeat and referral business. A sure way to do this is by forming lasting relationships with your customers.

Training

Excellent customer service must be cultivated through ongoing proper guidance and flawless coordination of people and procedures.

Thinking that great customer service is something that just happens is foolish. Great customer service requires constant training. Customers often teach suppliers how they want to be treated. Certainly the Internet has given a voice to customers, which enables them to voice their opinions - good or bad - to millions of readers.

Training is a three-part process:

1. The first part of training is the external customer, the person who is making the purchase. The external customer makes the purchase because that customer believes the product or service can provide a solution to a problem. Think about this for a moment. What was the last purchase you made that wasn't used to solve a problem? You purchased food because you were hungry. You went to a movie to be entertained. You bought a new tie so you could look good at a job interview or special event. Cable television solved your problem of what to do or what to watch, when you found the time. Purchases are made for a reason and, if that reason can be satisfied with a particular product or service, then you made a good purchase. If you find your needs aren't being satisfied, then the problem isn't solved and a new one is created: returning or canceling the purchase.

2. The second part of training is the internal customer. This is the team that makes up every part of the company - from production to fulfillment, from billing to returns - everyone in the company must embrace the concept of exceeding customer expectations. Like dating someone from a large family, or even a small one for that matter, you need the approval of everyone to make sure your concentrated efforts aren't diluted by others.

3. The third part of training is creating an integration of procedures that works well for both internal and external customers. Employee empowerment is the key. If the first person who hears a complaint is empowered to handle the complaint, the issue gets resolved quickly. If the first person has to talk to another person, the size of the problem, in the opinion of the customer, has just doubled.

Each person in the organization must realize his or her contribution is as important and anyone else's. Teams aren't built around one person. Just like a date, each one builds on the previous one. You start to have a history. You understand the needs and wants of your date and you try to make sure his or her goals are reached before yours. To be successful on a date (or in business), you need a mission and the dedication to make that mission a reality. No matter what your mission, you must have the single-minded focus to reach that goal. Otherwise, you are simply wasting time.

If we aren't aggressively trying to innovate, we are managing our companies toward extinction. For most companies, innovation is an acquired taste, something to be learned and something they had to cultivate. The difference between a skill and an attitude is this: skills are taught and attitudes are caught.

Apathy is the main reason businesses don't work and complacency means your days are numbered. If your company scores low on creativity and innovation, you might not be around for the long term. And, of course, the same is true of personal relationships. While you were excited at the beginning of a new relationship, as time passed, familiarity began to create complacency and complacency is often the reason couples break up and marriages end in divorce.

Innumerable

Competitive advantage can be described as being Number One. No one remembers Number two. Who won the silver or bronze metal? Who came in second in the World Series, Super Bowl, etc? Another example, take the Internet and search engines. Search engines are used to find products or services that have a Web site on the Internet. Every company wants to be Number One on search engines like Yahoo! or Excite. This means the search engine places your company at the top of the search list. Yet being Number One doesn't assure success. In fact, it may mean you are spending so much time trying to be Number One, you forget your core basics are running your business and satisfying your customers.

Ideology

Being Number One with your customers means they will tell others. Being Number One is a great goal if it has some business merit. They'll brag about how they found you. They'll tell others about how well you treat them. And, if you still doubt the power of the Internet, you'll soon find out how quickly your customers will tell the world. Will your company receive positive or negative feedback? Consider what your customers could say if they feel you have done something wrong or if you don't deliver exceptional customer service. They'll tell everyone who will listen. They'll log on to chat sites, tell everyone on their e-mail list, and stop doing business with you, while advising others to do the same. Your goal is to forget about search engines and to find customers and to give them the best possible customer service. The more satisfied your customers are, the more business you'll have in the future.

The other chapters in this book focus on external customers, without whom you couldn't survive. Many of the principles of customer service discussed here also apply to internal service issues. This chapter focuses on internal customers - your employees - without whom you can't survive as an organization. Great customer service must be a total commitment from your company.

Every employee is also a customer. Every customer is someone who wants something in return for his or her action or payment to you. Once you have reached this point in the book, you should understand that all relationships - business, family, social, and political - share a similar component: people. You can never predict the reaction of people. You can plan, hope, and communicate, but you can never forecast accurately.

You might notice only a few references appear to the dating comparison in this chapter. While I personally feel a great dating relationship is similar to working with and training your staff, too many negative implications currently exist, which could cause someone to take the comparison incorrectly.

Guarantee that both your Internal and External Customers are satisfied by showing them gratitude. You must go out of your way to Guarantee that you Internal customers, your employees are satisfied. If not, then how can they satisfy your external customers? Gratitude means rewarding them through incentives, promotions, and treating them just like you would like to be treated. If you do so, you'll keep them coming back for more.

Gainful

To gain more customers and build your business, first concentrate on the customers you already have. To alleviate stress, you need to stay focused on what you have that works Ñ what you experience and what you enjoy Ñ because the world is prepared to give you the message that you aren't doing enough. Customers are quick to tell you about your shortcomings and compare you to other organizations in which they received exceptional attention. To gain more business, first concentrate on the customers you have already. Make them want to tell others about you and your services. Offer them a reason to continue to do business with you, gain their trust so they want to tell others. Deal with a customer complaint fairly. If you aren't going to agree with your customer, try to reason with him. Take the time to explain why you can't comply with his request. Remember it costs 91 percent more to get a new customer than to retain an older one (Wall Street Journal Survey).

Gesture

Your gestures will either convey thankfulness or indifference to your customers. The more you focus on gratitude, the more you can diminish stress and open the doors to bring greater things in to your life. When you focus on and think about good things, you become a better person. If you spend a good portion of your day remembering the delicious lunch you had, the kind words someone said to you, or the beautiful compliment you gave someone, you are focusing on gratitude, which can lead to a much less-stressful existence.