How to Lose Customers (Part3)

After you have offered service quickly and with a personal touch things can still go sour from time to time. This is when your customer service kicks in.

If you want to lose customers make customer service your last priority. Make it appear as though you don't care what happens after the sale.

This practice may cut it if you were a peanut butter factory in the middle of a deserted island full of vegetarians but chances are this isn't the makeup of your customer base. In reality, you are not the only business, church, or employee who offers what you are "selling" so what are you doing to make people glad that they picked you? On a daily basis people are making decisions and why should they decide on you? When others have worked with you or attended your services did you make them feel glad that they did or did you make them regret their decision?

If you are going to grow as an entrepreneur, manager, pastor, or leader you have to think through the experiences that others have when interacting with you. For example: Is it difficult to get in touch with you when they have a problem? Can you quickly address concerns or is there a stack of red tape that they have to go through to get it addressed. Do you reply with canned responses or do you demonstrate that you actually listened to what they said? In business the customer counts. I won't go as far as to say that they are always right because you know that's not the case but they deserve to be treated with respect if for no other reason than you reflect Jesus to them because you proclaim that you are a Christian.

How would Jesus want you to treat them? Ignore their calls? Take 3 weeks to respond? Hide your "contact us" info under a stack of links on your website? I don't think so. If you want to lose them, look over them. If you want to keep them, care for them.

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How to Lose Customers (Part 2)

Not only is it important to offer excellent service in a timely manner but another aspect of service involves personal attention. If you want to lose customers treat every one as though you are doing them a favor and their business does not matter.

The moment that people feel as though you don't care about them or that you only see dollar signs when you look at them they will leave your church or business faster than you can say "Yabba Dabba Doo." People want to feel valued and if you can offer this in addition to whatever product or service that you provide you will begin to stand head and shoulders above the rest because many people/ organizations are unwilling to go above and beyond the call of duty.

You may have a million and one members, customers, or clients today but one of the factors that will determine whether or not you have them with you tomorrow is if you are willing to treat each one as if they are the only one. You have to work to make each person feel special. You can do this by truly being in the moment when you're interacting with them. Not looking at your watch and not easing away but truly being in the moment (even if only for a minute or two).

If you are on the phone with one don't try to hurry them off the line to talk to another. Be on the line with them. If you see a member in the store don't rush away to get out of the door, take a moment to actually acknowledge them. Sure you can't spend all day with each person, after all you have a business, organization or church to run, but you can spare a minute and trust that God is able to redeem the time from you pausing to demonstrate a loving attitude toward one of the people that He has sent your way. At best, you may change their life and at the very least you will demonstrate that they have value in your eyes and I have found that the more you value others the more they will value you.

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How to Lose a Customer (Part 1)

Everyone has a customer base. Everyone is trying to sell others on something. For you this may mean convincing others that your products or services deserve to be paid for. Or perhaps you are selling people on an idea such as: "My church is awesome, you should come!" or "I am worth every penny of the salary that you're paying me." Whether you realize it or not you have a customer base, a clientele that you're serving every day so it is important to understand the things that consistently drive people away so that you can avoid them at all costs.

In the first of this three-part series on How to Lose Customers I'd like to describe something that can test one's love for Christ to it's very core. Okay...that was a bit dramatic, maybe it's not that critical but it can definitely play a huge role in someone's decision to stick with you or move on. The characteristic that I am referring to is impatience. Companies, organizations and/or employees that consistently keep people waiting are consistently losing business, clients, constituents and congregants. The reason is clear...NO ONE WANTS TO WAIT! We live in a culture that makes it convenient to find what we're looking for quickly and if you are unable/ unwilling to do so be prepared to see the window of opportunity slide shut right before your eyes.

You may think that people should be more patient in which case you would be right, but are you going to be the employee who is known for consistently offering your boss "character building opportunities?" I don't think so! You'll be known as the one who just can't seem to get things done. Are you going to be known as the business that offers service with a smile and a side order of opportunities to practice patience? Probably not. You're going to be known as the company that couldn't cut it last time and most people aren't forgiving enough to continue to give multiple opportunities.

If you're going to do business, ministry or service differently you would do well to offer excellence expeditiously. When you do this they'll tell others but if you don't do this they'll tell others! Which testimony would you want to be told about you?

Don't keep people waiting.

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The Best Kept Secret!

It's a Fact of Life.

Do you remember the old television show called The Facts of Life? One of the lines in the theme song was “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the Facts of Life, the Facts of Life.” Well, one fact of life that you can be sure of it is that you are going to be tempted. I know you don't think so, or at least you want people to think that you're beyond that but I have discovered that it doesn’t matter how much you pray, fast, go to church or read your Bible temptation is going to knock on your door. Don’t be alarmed; you’re not the only one. A very well known young man in the Bible named Joseph had to endure tempting as he tried to be all that God was telling him that he could be (Genesis 39: 7-10).

It's not just You.

The bible tells us that the only things that tempt us are the things that commonly tempt others (1 Corinthians 10:13) so there are no new temptations out there. All of us get tempted. All of us!

It can be Overcome!

So how can we overcome these temptations? We can not prevent them from coming in and out of our minds but what we can do is make our minds hostile to temptation by filling it with God’s Word.

When Jesus was being tempted the only thing that He continued to repeat was the Word of the LORD concerning the areas of temptation. He emerged victorious and so can we. The next time temptation raises its ugly head in your mind quickly reply to it with the Word of the Lord because there's another "fact of life" which is that God’s Word never fails.

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What to do while you wait...

A few months ago I tried to complete a puzzle. I was so excited about it, I had invited a friend over and honestly thought that we would finish most of it that night…Not so…That night I learned very clearly that many things in life will require a process.

Much in the same way, the promotions that we seek don’t usually happen instantly. With such being the case we have to ask ourselves on a daily basis, “Am I willing to wait for what God has for me?” When I was working on that puzzle it sat on my living room table for about 2 weeks but where is it now? Back in the box! I wasn’t willing to wait and work patiently to see it completed.

Before you judge me and say I’m too impatient consider whether or not you're willing to work while you wait without giving up on what you want. The truth of the matter is that you might have to wait on that job, career, diploma or degree.

Are you willing to keep the faith & continue to work while you wait?

That’s a powerful question…

In the Bible Joseph (found in Genesis 41) waited a couple years before the cupbearer remembered something he had done and, in turn, referred him to Pharaoh. Are you willing to wait on something that will be a greater blessing than you’ve ever known after a while? Waiting is not always easy but I’ve learned that time goes by a lot faster when you are doing something instead of focusing on the fact that you’re still waiting.

Don’t just stand there. Work while you wait!

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Why you can believe it's possible!

Psalm 77: 11- I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles from long ago.

The word “remember” comes from two Latin words that mean to be “again-mindful”. You can’t be “mindful again” concerning something that you didn’t know before. I have to have known something before if I’m going to be mindful of it again because I can’t remember what I never knew! That’s why it’s so important to read your bible and spend some personal time getting to know the Word of the Lord because there will be times where you’ll need to remember God’s past miracles to be persuaded that He can perform one in your present circumstance!

God’s history demonstrates His credibility. When we’re extending our trust we always want to know if the one we’re trusting in is credible and trustworthy. So how do I know that God can come through for you this time? I can I be so convinced that it's still possible when I have no idea what you're going through?

I can believe that because I remember. Do you?

Remember how the Lord turned water into wine?
Remember how the Lord healed blinded eyes and weak legs?
Remember how the Lord split a sea and a river for His people to cross?
Remember how the Lord called Lazarus from the grave?

If you remember what the Lord has already done you’ll be able to convince yourself of what God is able to do.

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Dealing With Difficulties (Part 2)

Psalm 77:7

(7) ‘Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show His unfailing love again? (8) Has his promise failed for all time? (9) Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?’ (10) Then I thought, ’To this will I appeal: The years of the right hand of the Most High.’

I’ve always found it amazing that, in the middle of this psalm, the psalm writer seemed to realize that he couldn’t just sit around thinking about the negative things that were happening in his life. Perhaps he understood that if he kept thinking about the negative he would keep feeling down, so in order to get the negative things out of his mind he decided to replace them with thoughts about the Lord. There is an old proverb that says,

“Instead of cursing the darkness, light a candle.”

Many times when we find ourselves in dark situations in life, dark situations at work, dark situations in our families we try to find someone to call and say, “It sure is dark” when what we really need to do is replace those thoughts with thoughts about the light.

Those children may be acting out of character but at least they’re healthy!

They may not pay you what you desire right now but at least you’re working!

They may have walked out of your life but at least they didn’t take you out on the way!

Instead of cursing the dark areas in your life, I dare you to light a candle of gratitude. It may not correct the problem but it will at least provide enough light for you to find your way out of it.

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