 Are
You Overlooking Your Best Customers?
Send this report to me by auto-responder
I came across this story, attributed to Malcolm Forbes, which is supposed
to be true, and it could be true. Here it is.
A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a
homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly,
without an appointment, into the University president's outer office.
The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had
no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in
Cambridge. She frowned. "We want to see the president," the man said
softly. "He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped."We'll wait,"
the
lady replied. For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the
couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't. And
the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president,
even though it was a chore she always regretted to do. "Maybe if they
just see you for a few minutes, they'll leave," she told him. And he
sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously
didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses
and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.
The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the
couple. The lady told him, "We had a son that attended Harvard for one
year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was
accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial
to him, somewhere on campus." The president wasn't touched, he was
shocked. "Madam," he said gruffly. "We can't put up a statue for every
person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look
like a cemetery". "Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want
to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."
The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and
homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea
how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars
in the physical plant at Harvard."
For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could
get rid of them now. And the lady turned to her husband and said
quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a University? Why don't we just start our
own?" Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and
bewilderment. And Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to
Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears
their name, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those
who can do nothing for them or to them. --Malcolm Forbes
How are you treating customers "dressed in gingham" that you have as
clients? Sometimes, it pays to treat the least desirable, penny-pinching,
always questioning, difficult to understand clients with your best service.
You never know when they might surprise you with a great opportunity.
If you mistreat them, you will never know what you missed because your
great chance will go to someone else.
Of course, doing your best for even the worst clients has a cost.
But not doing your best has a cost too. Like this story, the loss could
have you kicking yourself for not paying a little better attention to your
customers' needs.
And of course the real problem is that you cannot tell which client will
lead you to your next pot of gold.
Just a thought, especially good for this time of year when so many of us
will be rushing around doing things. Please don't rush your customer
service. You will be more tired at the end of the day, but you will be
adding to your bottom line, both now and in the future.
Copyright © 1998 Stealth Promotions
Chris Kilian operates Stealth Promotions.
( http://www.stealthpromotions.com )
Stealth Promotions will create
your internet presence from scratch or
improve the effectiveness of existing web sites.
Subscribe to his newsletter by sending an
email to secrets@oaknetpub.com with
SUBSCRIBE in the BODY of the email.
This article can be copied and used in your publication or on
your web site at no charge. All we ask is that you publish
the article in it's entirety, including the footnote above.
|
