October 2004

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<I>October 2004</I></div> <div> <I>The following article was first published in the Eastern Daily Press' 'The Business'  on 12 October 2004</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Happy talk</B></div> <bR> <div> I've written before in this column about the importance of making your customers happy so they look forward to returning to your business.  Remember the 7-Step Customer Loyalty Ladder concept:  `Suspects' only become `Prospects' when they know you exist as a possible supplier and when they buy from you the first time they become `Shoppers'.  They're not `Customers' until they have bought from you more than once and they become `Members' when you start making them feel like they belong to a special club where they get exceptional service.</div> <bR> <div> A number of these will become so enthusiastic about dealing with you that they become `Advocates' of your business and a select few might actually progress to being `Raving Fans' who actively promote you and your business to their friends and acquaintances.</div> <bR> <div> But, how do you make your customers so happy that they want to come back time and time again?  How do you deliver consistently outstanding customer service?  As a starting point, I contend that, in every business situation I can think of, a happy team results in happy customers.  If you find a way to ensure that your team enjoys coming to work every day you'll move a long way down the road towards truly satisfied customers. </div> <bR> <div> The problem is, most businesses are not the sort of place in which people expect to have fun.  The conventional economist's model assumes work is what they call a `disutility' - an unpleasant means to a pleasant end:  money and all you buy with it. Psychologists studying happiness, however, confirm what many of us already know or suspect; that work plays a very important part in our happiness and that a lot of our happiness actually comes from the work we do.</div> <bR> <div> From a commercial perspective, though, you might ask `where's the profit in happiness?'  Many people in business think that their customers buy their product or service because it's better or cheaper than the competitors'.  I believe that, often, whether or not a customer buys from you is determined by the people in your business.  And if those people are visibly, genuinely happy in their workplace, the customer will enjoy the experience of doing business with you more and will want to return more frequently.</div> <bR> <div> Additionally, and beneficially from the perspective of the business, there is a growing body of evidence that happy teams are healthier, suffer from less stress even during stressful times, take fewer days off sick, are far less fickle about moving jobs frequently and perform more effectively than teams that are not happy.</div> <bR> <div> So how can we support our people in experiencing happiness at work?  To start with, two fundamental things should be positively encouraged (and, even, rewarded…):  the first is exhibiting - always - common courtesy to everyone else with whom you work.  Say `please' and `thank you' frequently; when you have a problem with a colleague, speak about it with them and no-one else; when something does go wrong, look for the reason in a procedure or system, not in a person.  The second, simply, is to laugh more. Laughter is nature's `happy pill'.  It release endorphins into the bloodstream, which, amongst many other benefits, help to lower blood pressure, reduce stress hormones and boost the immune system. </div> <bR> <div> Laughter, like courtesy and good manners is also highly contagious.  Colleagues and customers alike can catch the happiness `bug'.  And, remember, there's good business and good profit in those happy customers.</div> </td> <td valign="top" width=180 BGCOLOR="#CC3333" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>