Business is great, or business is terrible. It happens. What is important is to develop a program that will even-out the bumps and keep your business viable no matter what happens. No matter what business you are in, customer loyalty is the one most important thing for long-term survival. Here’s an email from a client with a problem and the solution we worked out.

“Paul, I own a (fairly large) business, and business is not so good. I've tried many things to improve business, all of them costing a great deal of money, and all of them working --- for a while. We feel customer loyalty is absolutely necessary if we are to survive and grow, and we don't have it. We've self-diagnosed our problem as a customer service problem and started working on a solution. We conducted customer surveys and passed the information to our staff. We implemented a bonus plan for retained customers, and had a motivation guru give a pep talk on the importance of customer service, and that worked too. Our staff was fired up and business picked up, but it quickly dropped back to the old level. What I need is a way to improve customer service that will have staying power, something that the customer will believe in, and something that will help me survive. Any suggestions?”

With the collapse of the dot com world the above scenario is common these days, even for so-called ‘successful’ firms. In the past year I have heard similar concerns from a large automobile repair shop, a beauty shop, a bank, three restaurants, a retail clothing store, a bakery, two mall shops, and two major business firms. All have the same problem, and the solution is the same for all … improve customer service. What follows is the outline of a five-step plan, adaptable to any business, and is guaranteed to improve your customer service with a minimal cost to you.

IDENTIFY KEY STAFF BEHAVIORS
Get busy. Identify what your customers would consider top-notch behaviors. Don’t just look to the front-line people in your organization; include everyone from stock clerk to outside salesperson to chief accountant, to president. These wanted-behaviors must include seemingly mundane items such as greeting a customer the second he or she walks into view with a cheery "Hello! Is this your first visit here?" (A great opener for a store!), putting a mirror next to the telephone to encourage a smile (Yes, it works!), to something as simple as delivering an order on the promised day. A complete list of service-related behaviors for each position in your company is not just the starting point …it is the only point! If you expect your staff to change how they interact with customers, you must identify what your customer considers great interaction, not what your staff considers great interaction.

MONITOR & MODIFY
After providing employees with a list of expected behaviors, monitor to see how often each employee actually performs the new behaviors. Develop a list of behaviors that are absolutely necessary and important to your company, and track each employee on his or her use of the behaviors. During this time you should be setting minimum standards of behavior expected of each employee for first class customer performance. You might consider using a point system where 96 to 100 is exceptional behavior, 90 to 95 minimum expected behavior, 85 to 89 marginal behavior, and below 85, unacceptable behavior.

TRAIN & EDUCATE
Install training programs that teach your employees the new customer-related behaviors. It is not enough to tell, you have to show, demonstrate, act-out, and make important to the employee the changes you want. This is an on-going project, not a one-time fix.

ANALYZE & REINFORCE
Once a month to start, then possibly twice a year thereafter, perform one-on-one analysis of each employees progress towards the desired behavior changes. But don’t let that stop you from encouraging compliance with positive and productive behavior with such items as ‘attaboy and attagirl’ pins and similar low-cost awards! Post these awards in your monthly employee newsletter. Your task is to coach employees towards the 100% compliance you desire.

REPORT RESULTS
Your report to staff can be something as simple as a graph or chart that shows individual employee compliance with your new behaviors. Use a code known to the individual employee as an identifier. Post these graphs on the bulletin board for all to see. Use your graphs as key discussion points in every employee/employer meeting.

WRAP
Of course this will work! It is NOT an overnight solution, but it will work! Consider influencing the program by becoming a role model. The burning question you have to answer is: “Will I do this?”

(NOTE TO EDITORS: PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING.)
Paul Tulenko is a Small Business Success Consultant based in New Mexico. Additional tips and suggestions are available at www.tulenko.com or call (toll-free) 1-866-TULENKO.