Word Of the Week #17: Feed Egos
April 20, 2009 by Susan Clarke
Feed Egos: how you make your customers, guests, clients, and members feel special and important.
Ultimate Ego Feeder
Do you know that when you feed people’s egos they will seek you out and force money in your hands? It’s true!
You can’t feed other peoples egos when yours gets in the way. Leave yours at home! Ego is all about self esteem. When you truly come from a place of serving others, and feel good about who you are, it’s very easy to feed others egos.
So how can you “feed” an ego? First, have a goal each day of making your customers, guests and members feel good about spending their money with you. Make them enjoy doing business with you and they will want to come back again and again. Secondly, never get in an argument. You will lose every time! Feeding egos is about letting people be right. We have all heard the saying, “the customer is always right.” Although we know that is not the case every time, you can treat them in such a way that they feel right without you feeling wrong.
Focus on doing as much for your customers, guests and members as you can. In other words, bending over backwards to take care of them. Watch the response you get and how it makes you feel.
Reader Responses
“Your tip reminded me of something that happened with a Walgreens customer last year. In the Walgreens weekly circular, we sell neon lights in various shapes, including electric guitars. Now, a 58-year-old woman in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, saw this in our circular and wrote a letter of complaint to Walgreens Chairman. In the letter she noted that Walgreens should not be promoting such a sexual item in its ads, with the male member entering a female. Apparently, the neon electric guitar was not labeled in the ad and that was what SHE saw. Some Rohrshach Test, huh? In his response, our chairman thanked her for pointing out the ad and that Walgreens was remiss for not labeling the item in the ad. And in the future, we would be more careful about what we picture in the circulars. In the interim, the woman’s son saw what troubled her in the ad and thought she had overreacted. When she received our Chairman’s reply, she wrote back embarrassed but said that because of how he had responded to her letter that she would tell everyone to shop at Walgreens from here on out. Our Chairman gave the customer the benefit of the doubt and put the onus on Walgreens. She was very pleased. This is a good example of letting the customer know she is right, without making an example of her. Great tip! — “Warrior” Joe Moran
“Touche! Bull’s eye! Another home run by Susan! Here is my take on this issue: often when our members request (demand) something, I try (gently) to remind them that his or her fellow member has requested a consideration of the opposite. So it is not really me who counters but my interaction with other members giving me the insight into the many (opposing) expectations from our members. It works great and takes the heat off the manager by displaying a listening and caring approach.” — Kurt J. Bishofberger
“Regarding this topic, I like the saying “The customer is NOT always right, but they are still the customer.” — David Keeler