Passion produces profits

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It amazes me how poor customer service is at many places where I do business.  Employees will stop waiting on a customer to talk to someone who has called them on the phone.  When you ask where some item is employees either don't know or point in some general direction instead of taking you to the item.  People arrive late for appointments.  One night I stopped at a fast food restaurant and watched as my food was placed in front of the girl working the drive through window.  She took a drink of her soft drink, opened the window and handed me my change, closed the window and took another drink before opening the window and handing me my drink, and then closed the window and took another drink before finally giving me my food.  At that point I couldn't help myself and told her that had to be the worse customer service I had seen in a long time.  She was offended that I complained.  She was probably even less happy when her manager made her write me an apology letter after I contacted the home office when I returned home.  I used to stop there several times a year.  I haven't been back.

Whose fault is it when employees provide poor service?  Once again I will repeat one of my favorite sayings: Everything rises and falls on leadership.  For whatever reason, employees who provide poor customer service have no passion for what they do.  They are there to earn a paycheck, and beyond that they are going through the motions doing the minimum that will keep that check coming. More often than not, that attitude comes from the top.  When small business owners and managers lose their passion for what they are doing, that loss of passion filters down through the entire system.  And that loss of passion costs the business money.

Passion for what you do must be a core value of the company if it wants to succeed.  Passion will help your business rise to the top in your field.  And believe me, it starts with the owner and managers.  Passion is contagious and so is a lack of it.  Your employees will do what they see you do so if you want them to approach their work with passion you need to as well.  Read the following article to see how passion has helped one well-known hotel chain rise above others, and then spend some time thinking how you can incorporate some of this information in your own business.

http://clomedia.com/articles/view/passion-promotes-profit