BACK TO THE BASICS

“Excellence is in the details. Give attention to the details and excellence will come.” – Perry Paxton

Good is not good enough in this overbuilt, competitive world…. We must strive for EXCELLENCE or to be better ….

We have to expect EXCELLENCE of/from ourselves …..our people ….our company …. In all we do.

How do we go about this …. to deliver this EXCELLENCE?

It is all around us … the message is clear … in business, sports, the arts, even our personal lives. We need to get back to basics.

Get back to basics, and do the basics very, very well, better than anyone else, better than the competitor next door or down the street.

In the sports world, it is knowing and doing the fundamentals of the game until they are part of you …blocking and tackling if you will …. That’s how the game is won. Sure there is always the spectacular play now and again, but the consistent winners, the superstars, are the ones who do it right all the time. Knowing their job in every detail and doing the basics better than anyone else
…….. GETTING THE BASICS RIGHT.

In the business world, it is:
 Taking care of little things
 Hands on management
 Being Imaginative
 Being Innovative
 Being Flexible
 Demanding of self and people
 Providing a good quality product
 Consistency

The list can go on but you get the idea.

I would like to share a provoking piece entitled:

I AM YOUR CUSTOMER
I am your customer,
Satisfy my wants and give me personal attention
And a friendly touch, and I will become a walking advertisement
For your products and services.
Ignore my wants, show carelessness, inattention, and poor manners,
And I will simply cease to exist as far as you’re concerned.
I am sophisticated, much more so than I was a few years ago.
My personal needs are more complex.
I have grown accustomed to better things, I have more money to spend,
I am an Egotist, I am sensitive, I am proud,
My Ego needs the nourishment of a Friendly Personal Greeting from you.
It is important to me that you appreciate my business,
After all, when I buy your services, my money is feeding you.
I am a Perfectionist, I want the best I can get
For the money I spend.

When I criticize your service ….and I will,
To anyone who will listen, when I am dissatisfied, then take heed.
The source of my discontent lies in something you have failed to do.
Find that source and eliminate it, or you will Lose my business
And that of my friends as well.

I am fickle, other companies; your competitors continually beckon me With offers of better services for my money.

To keep my business, and patronage you must
Offer something better than they do.

I am your customer now, But you must prove to me again
And again that I have made a Wise choice in selecting you
And your services above all others.

A recent poll survey pointed out that 61% of the clients would not return if service was slow. Shocking isn’t it!?! That gives us an idea of the choices our clients have and the fact that no ones needs to put up with poor service in any area.

Good service is anything that makes a client feel more at home and comfortable during his encounter with you or your company. We have to be the beacon of true management, to make them feel they are special.

Nothing is really new is it? It’s back to basics …. Being consistent,
means doing the basics better than the rest.

Isn’t this the way you and I want to be treated every day of our life? This is No different than our client’s wants and needs.

When we “ GET BACK TO BASICS ” it means in our business, we:
Have a work environment that reinforces the ideal of putting customer first
This is done whilst making sure our customers feel appreciated and feel special
Understand the customers needs and expectations
Maximize the quality of the customers experience
Design systems and procedures that assist

Work for and not against customers wants and needs

Provide a quality, effective, efficient, dependable, predictable, uniformed service and product in all we do.

A Big Mac is a Big Mac everywhere in the world ….

Consistency and MacDonald’s is a very profitable company.

Is our business consistent? Does the customer leave satisfied every time? Can we truly say that we really know everything …. every detail …. of our Jobs? Are we Excellent? Do we know our Basics ?
“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” – Colin Powell

If we say “YES”, then :
 Our staff is happy …. friendly, excellent …. Know every aspect of their jobs.
 They smile a lot …. Genuinely, call and know our clients by name, remember their preferences ……..
 We are consistently held up in our client’s as “the” people and hotel to do business with.
 We can and do command a higher price for our products and out guests willingly pay it knowing that they are getting fair value at a fair price.
 Our percent of repeat business is very high …. Our market share is the highest in our market place.
 We are making money and having fun!
 Special requests are welcomed as a challenged by the total staff.
 “Telephone Courtesy” is followed automatically.
 Response time is swift.
 Our clients enjoy doing business with us.
 All quality standards are followed.
 Most of all, we are consistent in everything we do.

“ Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.” – John W. Gardner
Put your mind in positive frame and add to this basic list …. It could go on and on and on, if the world were perfect, so to speak, and why not? Wouldn’t you rather work in a place that was near perfect than the flip side? I would.

Many new people are and will be experiencing our company for the first time. Many of these people can and do influence group business as well as individual business for our comapny.
The bottom line is people, our people have to be the best in the industry! That is what we must be and must continue to be.

Good people are function of Good Management. We need good managers, and more importantly good leaders and with a little more effort, we will be Excellent Leaders, Managers, Staff …. It starts with Basics !

The man credited with the turnaround of SAS Airlines was President Jan Carlzon. His advise is “Make sure you are really selling what the customer needs to buy. Our business is not flying airplanes, it’s serving the travel needs of our public. If we do that better than other companies, we’ll get the business.”

Our Business is similar in many ways to the airline business. Their passengers like our clients, our staff, they have many choices in today’s marketplace. We need to make sure they choose our service or product every time.

Carlzon stressed an almost obsessive commitment to managing every customer experience with SAS. “We have 50,000 moments of truth everyday,” He said, referring to any episode in which a customer comes into contact with any aspect of the company and forms an impression.

How many “Moments of Truths” do we face each day in our companies, via our websites, via their phonecalls, their visits, their emails, and their moments of truth with each of our staff. What do our clients say? What is He/She experiencing at our company with our staff? Remember the POLL …. 61 percent will not return!! if that moment of truth is negative.

Profit is the end result of doing it right and having excellent operations. Without it, we do not exist …. No company does. We can and need to be more profitable in our total operations.

We should not …. And do not need to …. Comprise quality to become more profitable. By getting back to the basics and understanding every aspects of our job, being customer and service oriented, expecting excellence of ourselves, our people, our operations, we will achieve our goals.

It’s up to you …. Us …. The finest selection of professionals in the industry …. Live It …. Believe It, and our customers will experience it!

Remember …. GET BACK TO THE BASICS ! Do it better than anyone else, do it consistently and let the staff shine so that your clients will Discover, Experience and Remember your company, product or service each and every time. GET BACK TO THE BASICS.

“ Excellence is about doing the Basics well, really well, in fact better than the rest, and that is the key to your success.” – Leslie Choudhury

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