The Moments of Truth

Customer Relations Management is the buzz word today. Every interaction between a customer / consumer and service provider is a moment of truth - The truth whether the sevice provider is truly customer-centered?
Read this from Zig Ziglar, trainer and the worlds greatest salesman
Vivek Hattangadi
vivekhattangadi@yahoo.co.in
Moments of Truth

A “Moment of Truth” is any opportunity (contact) a customer has to get an impression of the level of customer service your company delivers. There are many, many moments of truth that the customer can experience that begin to make up an overall impression of your organization. Was the phone answered in a timely manner; how much trouble was it to get out of the automated loop and talk to a live person; is the lobby clean; was their question answered; is your appearance professional? These are just a few of the opportunities a customer has to form an impression of your company. Moments of truth can be identified and managed – they don’t just “happen.” It is how you manage those moments that ultimately determines how successful the business – and you – will be. Your day is filled with “moments of truth” – full to overflowing, and each is an opportunity to exceed customer expectations. Think about your job – what are some moments of truth that you can identify? Don’t forget the internal customers (your coworkers) as well. You have many moments of truth with your coworkers that add up to how they view you and your ability to do the job. You may feel that you personally can’t make an impact on the impression your customer has of your organization. That would be incorrect! As long as you are speaking to the customer, in their mind you are THE organization. You represent the entire business. What you say and do, how you sound, the knowledge you use to work with the customer – all of these add up. It is your moment of truth – are you ready?

This article is adapted from the Assuring Customer Loyalty program from Zig Ziglar
Very well written by Eric WildeAdapted from: Ten Moments of Truth by Eric Wilder (babyshopmagazine.com)

Failure is not permanent

Failure is not Permanent By Dave Ramsey
Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. – Henry Ford
As I have walked with thousands of families through hope-robbing financial problems, I have realized there are reasons we lose our hope. Our mind and spirit have believed lies in order to lose the most precious item called HOPE. One big hairy lie that we allow to steal our hope is: Failure is permanent. If we see failure in our past as an indicator of our future, it will rob our hope. Winston Churchill, the great British prime minister, said, “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” When we believe failure is here to stay, we lose enthusiasm and the ability to head back toward success.
Hope is stolen when we misunderstand failure. Failure is natural, normal, and is going to happen. If we take all the lessons learned from failure and stack them, we can easily get the breathtaking view that hope gives. The trick is to avoid making short-term decisions, based on loss of hope, that have worse long-term effects.
When people are in financial difficulty, they often make stupid short-thinking financial decisions. If you really believe you can never save enough money to pay cash for a car, you lose hope and borrow the money. If you got laid off from a job or your small business went under, you may think the rest of your life is doomed. Debt, which robs your ability to build wealth, is usually the result of lost hope. We have been sold debt so thoroughly that it has stolen our hope. People who have hope, grown from vision based in values, are savers and investors; they think long term. Where there is a lack of hope, we cripple our ability to build wealth and long-term relationships of value.

When past failure sneaks up and steals our hope, we must have been asleep at the wheel because we know better, realizing that failure is part of the process. The great author C.S. Lewis agrees. He said, “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.”

I Know, I've Been There
Failure is definitely a part of my story. Starting from nothing, by the time I was 26 I had a net worth of a little over $1 million and was having fun! However, then debt caused Sharon and me, over the course of two and a half years of fighting it, to lose everything. After losing it all, we didn’t let failure keep us down for long. I went on a quest to find out how money really works, how I could get control of it, and how I could have confidence in handling it. I formed our company in 1988 to counsel folks hurting from the results of financial stress. To this day, our mission statement isn’t just lip service; it’s our mantra

Now is the time to learn from your failures and regain HOPE. Make it happen!
Dave Ramsey is a personal money management expert, an extremely popular national radio personality and best-selling author of The Total Money Makeover.