Good Communication

What can set you apart

Focusing managers and other employees on customer needs

Engaging employees in running the business

Helping managers effectively communicate key messages

Leveraging talents of internal communicators to manage change effectively

Measuring effect of employee communication

Brand employee experience or build employee loyalty

Is the customer always right? by Malu Dy Buncio

There is an adage that everyone knows and that is “THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!”  Obviously the customer is ‘always right’ because the decision to hand over their hard earned money for your product or service lies with the customer.

Recently however, I encountered a prospective client that got me thinking about whether this adage is indeed always true.  As a consultant, I was being asked to submit a proposal for ananticipated strategic planning session for a company.  Actually I had submitted a proposal the previous year for the same company but the planning session did not push through.

Last year after several meetings with this client, it became clear to me that the head of the company had already decided what the course of action should be for the company.  I remember thinking to myself that in this case, a strategic planning process would not be effective.

This year I received an urgent call back from the same client.  When I met the client, I was pleasantly surprised that the head of the company seemed to be more open to strategic planning. However, as the meeting progressed, it became clear that the client wanted to design the planning session in a way that I knew would not give them their desired results.  In fact, the desired process would give them the same old strategies they were implementing year after year.  I explained why the proposed design was flawed but my explanation fell on deaf ears.  In fact, the atmosphere became quite hostile when I usedthe words “in my experience with other clients . . .“  The client’s response was “well I know my market.”

I realized then that this client and I were not a good fit, so I politely said  ‘then perhaps you would be better off working with another consultant.’  To which the client quickly replied ‘yes’.

I have no regrets letting this project go because I don’t believe we would have achieved fact based conclusions and strategies.  The management style of the client was quite autocratic and would have resulted in him overruling conclusions and strategies he did not agree with.

I did however, think about the concept of ‘fulfilling the needs and wants of clients’ after my meeting with this client.  In Interior Design School I was taught that if you have a client and if the design they desired did not match your vision or your idea of good taste, just follow the client’s desire.  The client is always right.  After all, they will be the one to live with the design.

Should I have taken the same attitude? Should I have just taken the client’s money and followed his process and let him live with flawed strategies?  Perhaps-  but my work ethic cannot take that attitude.  It is not a coat of paint or color scheme.  These strategies would have determined whether the company would survive and whether people who have invested the best years of their lives working for this company would still have a job in the future.

So is the customer always right?  Yes because they do have the final decision in whether to hand over their money for your product or service.  But manufacturers and service suppliers also have the right to design their product or service in a manner they believe is correct.  In addition, manufacturers and service suppliers also have the right to decide who they will sell their product or service to.

Malu DyBuncio is the Chief Business Development Strategist of Mansmith and Fielders, Inc., (www.mansmith.net). She was the former country head of Avon Philippines and Avon Indonesia.  She will be conducting the Dynamics of Direct Selling seminar-workshop on September 20-21, 2011.  For inquiries on our programs, please call (63-2) 584-5858/412-0034, text 0918-81-168-88 or email info@mansmith.net. Please also send your marketing and sales, strategy and innovation questions to mentors@mansmith.net.

SILENCE

Keep the plot of your life simple.  “Beauty when unadorned is adorned the most”.  (Athenaeus)  Simplicity makes things visible to everyone and thus enlightens all who are exposed to what is presented.  Be yourself.

Give what you wish to receive.  What you give back freely will come back to you.

Don’t feel bad when someone criticizes you; it’s one of the certainties of life. There are only three things that are certain death, taxes and criticism.

Always believe that patience is a virtue.  Patience allows you time to know more about yourself and the person you are dealing with.

Spend some time in the dark.  When facing emotional despair, hopelessness or physical anguish, going into the darkness helps you find yourself and renew your life.  The care you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.  (Joseph Campbell)

Have no regrets.  Regret for things you did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things you did not do that is inconsolable  (Sydney Harris).  You  can do nothing to change the decisions you made in your past, but the future holds many possibilities.

 

Be a best friend forever.  That BFF is someone who can put up with your follies and shortfalls but still put up with you and be there for you.

Say the serenity prayer when feeling troubled, and remember its message. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Fail successfully.  You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it.  Mistakes can be a valuable part of life’s curriculum.

See through the eyes of an optimist and observe what direction your life takes.  Attitudes are more important than facts. That life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. (Charles Swindoll)

Cleanse yourself with a good cry. God washes the eyes by tears until they can behold the invisible land where tears shall come no more. (Henry Ward Beecher)

Be generous with praise.  It is the sweetest of all sounds. Listen to your guilt feelings and follow their guidance.  Do not avoid them.  They are markers of mental health.

Never lose hope.

Live in the moment.

Silence is one of the greatest gifts God has given you.  Silence is the most beautiful doorway into prayer, peace contemplation and true wisdom.  Silence is also a discipline that leads to humility and to a love that does not seek to possess.  Only the person who is truly silent can hear the whisperings of God’s love deep within his heart.  “Listen” has the same letters as “silent”.  Listen to the silence of your heart and you will know what to do.

Books recommended by National Book Store

The 7 Great Prayers: For a Lifetime of Hope and Blessings by Paul and Tracey McManus Paul and Tracey McManus lost everything in the wake of dot-com bust-- they have no jobs, their savings had evaporated, the bill collectors were banging on the door, and they were losing their home. Though scared and paralyzed with fear they began to thank God for what they have. This prayer of gratitude was life changing. These prayers give them hope and strength they needed to overcome life's challenges, financial worries, health concerns and also to find purpose in life. Eager to share their newfound hope they created a simple webpage about The 7 Great Prayers and they wrote a book about them. Heaven is for Real: a Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo When Colton Burpo made it through an emergency appendectomy, his family was overjoyed at his miraculous survival. What they weren't expecting, though, was the story that emerged in the months that followed--a story as beautiful as it was extraordinary, detailing the little boy's trip to heaven and back. Colton, not yet four years old, told his parent he left his body during the surgery, and authenticated that claim by describing exactly what his parents were doing in another part of the hospital while he was being operated on. He talked of visiting heaved and relayed stories told him by people he met there whom he had never met in life, sharing events that happened even before he was born. He also astonished his parents with descriptions and obscure details about heaven that matched the Bible exactly though he has not yet learned to read. He also tells of meeting long departed family members. He describes Jesus, the angels how "really, really big" God is and how much God loves us. It offers a glimpse of the world that awaits us.

Harvard Education Letter

Harvard Education Letter