Reading harold_maude's journal

My father for all he wasn't, was an extrodinary business man.
Working for him was the first paid job I ever had.

I walked away from that experience with the understanding of his view of being in business, competion and the like.
He had this saying that he ran his business by, they can always go down the street.

That idea seems to have been lost somewhere among the mentality of fast food, chain department stores and supper stores that are overloaded on so many levels that a person can get lost going in circles.

It would seem that customer service is now something you only find in upper eceschalant places where the price tag of the product refelects that.

Something went wrong somewhere. I've seen over the last few years attempts to reinstate great customer service at places like wallyworld, by employeing older people as greeters and why?
Because they remember that businesses used to be based on awesome customer service and a time when you knew your customers personally.
There was a sense of loyalty about it all.

But that went out the window with the invention of the chain store and mega cities where no one is connected for very long anymore.
Customer service is something that many people I've met in my travels have very little idea about.
Most people working today are interested in one thing, the paycheck.
And the vast majority of these same people are butt heads when they are on the customer end of things.
So the cycle goes.

It's not just a job you work at. If it is and it's nothing more than a paycheck maybe it's time to think about doing something you can care about.
Take pride in because what you do when your there for how many hours is a huge indicator to you of what your willing to spend chunks of your life doing.

Granted there are times in life you just gotta do what you gotta do to get by.
But when you go for that new job, or want to feel different about the job your in now, realizing that what you do or don't do shows people what your made of in certian arenas.

And yes, I know there are bosses and managers out there that should be put out to pasture or sea or removed from the job because they make your job harder than it has to be.
I've worked for several that fall into that catagory.

What I've found is that great customer service goes along way in garenteeing a long running business.
And that is hard to find unless your willing to pay through the nose for it.
And it shouldn't be that way.

If you think about what you like when you go shopping anywhere what are the things that make you return again and again to the same store.

There are someplaces that I frequent due to one thing, how they make me feel when I'm there.
The prices are relativly the same and even cheaper somewhere else in these places.
And I could always go to the place where the stuff I want is cheaper.
For me how an employee treats me tells me whether or not the buiness is worth my going to.
The employee is that helps me is the embasetor for the business I'm giving my money to.
So why would I go someplace where the employees don't give a shit about anything but their paycheck?

For that reason there are big name places I don't set foot into.
For that reason there are little businesses that don't get my business.

We live in a time when no matter where you are you can get pretty much anything you want or need.
The one thing that that makes the difference and has been lost and is needed so badly is employees who understand the simple truth my dad ran his business by, they can always go down the street.

It only looks that way because your standing on your head.

This post was edited by harold_maude on Jul 11, 2005.