I paid my people more than any competitor. I wrote a sales manual with the direct input of my employees and had meetings "away" from the sweatshop at my home. Enjoyed regular dinners in nice restaurants with my store managers. In reality, I became friends with my staff and made them call me by my first name rather than the cold and stoic "Mr. Beneteau", like my competitors did. Generous bonuses were given to the truly deserving. I tried my hardest to make a true team by asking for their opinions and advice on every critical issue. And I'll tell you what, I got great ideas from them!
The beauty was, they all thought like our customers did! And what a way to approach customer service in a business where in reality, the drycleaner was the last in a long line of services customers didn't want to have to spend their hard-earned income on.
And what about my customers?
Well, the employee sales training reflected my employee's ideas. It all boiled down to "treating" customers like family. And since my staff had a lot of input into the manual and our procedures, they took the job of training new employees very seriously. So, they took possession of the training ritual, which became "Customers are King".
On the production side, I had all the bases covered - experienced and (now) well-paid staff, good machinery, the best supplies, slick packaging, upgraded stores and of course, top-notch public relations.
Complaints? Of course we had them. But my eager staff was trained to turn every complaint into "an opportunity". The opportunity to make every unhappy person a loyal, lifetime customer. A customer who would in turn tell everyone they knew that their drycleaner bought them a brand new suit just a week after losing their seven year-old suit. Competitors told me I was a "sucker". My heart told me this was the way!
Word-of-mouth became my number one form of advertising.
I was young and wet behind the hearing organ when I made these choices. But the epilogue has it that I did "clean up" in my town. In one of the most difficult and complicated businesses to run, I simply parlayed my early beliefs, which gratefully were the ones I still carry with me, into a successful multi-store business with happy customers, employees and a pretty darn good bottom line.
And you know what else? After having sold this business from "underneath" my wonderful employees nine years ago, they threw me the most wonderful and unforgettable "retirement" party. I was only thirty-six. Their best-wishes cards still bring tears to my eyes and their gifts, a gold neck chain and bracelet I wear to this day. I still get phone calls, Christmas cards and letters from some of them. I'm forever running into my former customers who almost without exception, in some fashion, say to me "I wish you were still in business".
Thing is, I AM still in business, albeit in cyber-space. And I'm doing very well thank you. I still hold dear, and know that those same values that I started with almost twenty years ago, are responsible for what I have achieved today on the Internet.
Folks, if there is only one thing that I will ever write that has any kind of impact on you, let it be this:
Shoot for Success by Aiming to Please.
Written by Rick Beneteau
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