About Anne and Outcome Thinking® Training

It's the Little Things that Kill the Deal! I was a Northwest Frequent Flier, now it is Delta. Many things changed during the merger including how you get status, maintain status, how you get upgrades, etc. But really none of those bug me. My husband gets a little bent out of shape that we don't get "bumped" up as often as we did before. I deal with it. But you know what really bothers me? It is the change in how they send the itinerary to you. Northwest had an email that contained all the flight information right in the email. Delta sends you an email with an attachment of your itinerary. Here is the problem: On my blackberry when I saved all my flight schedules from Northwest, it was easy to open them up and see all the information right away. Now with Delta, I save the email but over time the attachment no longer opens. So there I am, at the airport, trying to figure out my next flight. We have had to go back to printing a hard copy or having someone waste time by cutting and pasting my itineraries and emailing them to me. See, I told you it was a little thing but to a frequent flier it is a major pain in the... So here is your take action: What are you doing in your business that makes it more efficient for you but less effective for your clients? Can you change those? Remember the race is usually not lost by miles but rather by inches; the small things are the inches. -Anne Outcome Thinking® training works to shift the brain from the defensive to the offensive allowing more focused, creative and effective long term solutions and outcomes. It will allow you to stay positively focused and in alignment with other's needs and perspective instead of lapsing into negative assumptions, and reacting from a limited and more narrow point of view . As a leader, you want to access your full brain power to creatively handle and address challenges and needs that arise and spark innovation. Contact us at 888-imp-9421, visit www.impressionmanagement.com, or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Anne's Outcome Thinking® Insights

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Quotable Quotes

“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”

- James Allen

Outcome Thinking^® Solution

How to politely correct the situation when you have received poor customer service

Situation:

Dear Anne, It seems that customer service has just gone downhill. I remember when people used to thank you for buying at their store and now I find that I am the one saying thank you as I make my purchase!

I was in a situation where we received poor customer service in a restaurant. To make matters worse this was an outing with a client. Since how I react to the situation can affect my relationship with my client I was not sure what the proper thing to do was.

There were only two of us at the table so if I excused myself that would have left my client sitting and I didn't think it was proper to chew the staff out at our table.

How should I have handled it?

OUTCOME DESIRED:

You want to receive good customer service.

HOW TO HANDLE:

This can be a tricky situation.

If you don't do anything the client may feel you don't have the backbone to deal with difficult issues and if you make a big scene, the client may feel you are embarrassing to them.

If you had more than the two of you at the table, I would have recommended that you just excuse yourself and then go find the manager to rectify the situation. In this situation, that was not an option for you.

Since I don't know what was wrong with the customer service I am going to assume that either your food was delivered cold or prepared incorrectly or that you had a difficult time getting the wait staff to assist you at the table with refills on drinks and other needs.

When we receive poor customer service it feels like a reflection on us personally so we take it personally. It feels as though they can't be bothered with you even though you are the one paying for it.

Here are some ways to handle it using Outcome Thinking®:

1. First look around at the surroundings. Is there a reason customer service was off today? For example, too few wait staff, unexpected rush of new customers; new wait person at your table? If so, then I would just make a comment to the client, "Usually this restaurant is right on with their customer service. It seems they just got a rush of customers so their service is thrown off right now. At least it gives us some time to chat uninterrupted."
   
   If you are leaving separately, then at the end you can say, "It was a delight meeting with you today. I will stay and take care of the check so you won't be late to any other appointments." This will allow you to say good bye to him and then seek out the manager.
2. If you don't see any reason that the service should be so poor, then you have two options.
   a. you can just ignore it and not return or
   b. you can excuse yourself and go back up to the hostess stand (try to get out of sight from the client). Once at the stand ask, if you could please have the manager come to the hostess stand to chat with you.

BEST PHRASED:

In example 1: After your client has left say to the manager: "I have been to your restaurant before and had great customer service and that is why I particularly picked your restaurant to bring my client to today. Unfortunately our experience today didn't match the caliber of your restaurant and I wanted to share that with you. I realize there was a rush of customers and that your team was working really hard. What happened to us is that our beverages took 45 minutes to get and when our food arrived it was cold." Then just stop talking. At this point most managers will jump right in with how they will fix the situation. If they don't, you just add on "... And I wanted to see what you and I could do about the situation."

In example 2: At the hostess stand say to the manager: "I have been to your restaurant before and had great customer service and that is why I particularly picked your restaurant to bring my client to today. Unfortunately our experience today didn't match the caliber of your restaurant and I wanted to share that with you. What happened to us is that our beverages took 45 minutes to get and when our food arrived it was cold. What bothered me the most is that our waiter didn't apologize to us and he even acted rude to us when we requested refills on our beverages. It just didn't fit with my past experiences and that is why I wanted to talk with you to see if the situation could be rectified." Then just stop talking. At this point most managers will jump right in with how they will fix the situation. If they don't, you just add on "... And I wanted to see what you and I could do about the situation."

Deal of the Month!

Outcome Thinking®: Getting Results Without the Boxing Gloves If you have ever wanted to say the right thing at the right time, then this book is for you. Anne shares why traditional communication doesn't work and shows you how to shatter paradigms so you connect better with others. You will learn three easy principles so when you speak people want to listen to you. Hardcover. Buy Now

Outcome Thinking^® Guest Column
Lighting your way with new perspectives!

Selling Your Authenticity
by Roger Dawson

The truth is incontrovertible, as Winston Churchill would say. You cannot be a top producer unless you genuinely believe in the value of your product or service and can enthusiastically convey that to your buyers.

Let's be clear about what I mean by enthusiasm. I don't mean the mass excitement generated at rock concerts and sales rallies. That kind of frantic jump-up-and-down excitement is short-lived. What good does it do to get all pumped up at one of those rallies if the thought of making a cold call gives you a migraine?

No, I'm talking about the genuine enthusiasm that comes from a sincere belief in what you're selling. To develop enthusiasm, start truly believing in your industry, your company, your product and your ability to serve your customers. If you truly believe in your product,you won't need superficial excitement to motivate you. You'll be sitting in front of that phone thinking, I can't wait to pick up the phone and start telling people how good this is.

Here are some tips on how to grow your enthusiasm:

1. Get feedback from your customers. A lot of salespeople don't want to hear from people they have sold. No news is good news for that kind of salesperson. Get feedback. The more you hear from your customers that they were delighted with their purchase, the better you will feel about what you do.
2. Improve the quality of your customers' feedback with this mantra: I'm going to promise my customers less but deliver more. If you are closing sales by exaggerating the worth or value of your product, you are always going to have unhappy customers.
3. Stimulate your sales presentation with enthusiastic third-party stories. If you sell vacations and you can't get excited about going to Hawaii, you can still enthusiastically say, "Jo and Bill McAuley were so excited about their vacation in Hawaii. They called to tell me that it was the best time they'd had in their lives."
4. Learn about your competitors and their shortcomings. Some salespeople are reluctant to do this because they have no intention of knocking the competition. That's fine, but hopefully, the more you know about your competitors' problems and shortcomings, the more enthusiastic you will become about your own product.

I've never met a more enthusiastic salesperson than my good friend Peter Shield. I first met Peter in Brisbane, Australia, when he introduced me to the audience at one of my Power Negotiating seminars. About 15 years later, Peter emigrated from Australia to Las Vegas, where he got involved in the timeshare industry. He has taken to the timeshare industry like a duck to water. He loves it.

For years now I've tried to break Peter's enthusiasm for timeshare. I've never been able to do it. Every project he has worked on has been the most incredible bargain in the world. "Come on Peter," I'll tease him, "when I want to go on vacation I can pick from thousands of travel bargains on the Web. Why would I need to buy a timeshare?"

"Roger," he replies, "we've been friends for over 15 years now and I'll tell you the truth from the bottom of my heart. You will never, ever find a better buy than the project that I'm working on now! And apart from that, you get my service. My service comes with every sale I make. And you can't buy me online."

What does that teach me about Peter's approach? It teaches me nothing will ever shake his enthusiasm for his product.

Buyers are not persuaded by logic. They are persuaded by how well you can communicate your belief in your product and service.

Roger Dawson is a corporate trainer and the author of Secrets of Power Negotiating.