Do you ever cringe when you hear your people TALK TO YOUR CUSTOMERS?

If you worry about the way some of your team treat your customers, but feel you can't do anything about it because of employment laws - HERE'S WHY YOU'RE WRONG!

1. The reason you cringe is simple - you would NEVER say what they just said.

You've been talking to customers for a long time. Whether or not you're a people person, you've had to talk to them because it's the only way to build your business. You've learned the hard way what NOT to say, and without realising it you've learned intuitively what are the RIGHT THINGS to say if you want people to keep buying the service or product you sell.

2. The ball is in your court! First you need to figure out what your people should say to your customers.

Most business owners throw their hands up in despair at this point. "What's wrong with these people - don't they know you just can't treat customers like that?" The answer is often no, they genuinely don't know because they don't own a business so they're more interested in defending themselves from too much work, nasty people, etc. The good news is that it's not hard to figure out what they should say. You just have to sit down with a pen and paper and over the course of a week or so, scribble down the sorts of things your customers typically say, and then what you say back to them which seems to work. Pretty soon you'll surprise yourself with a long list of 'how to's' for talking to customers.

3. The next step is a bit harder but not too difficult.

Now you need to write a system. It can be as simple as two columns on a page. On one side you have CUSTOMER SAYS on the other YOU SAY.

4. Now we get to the tough bit - actually it's not really tough at all - how to get your people to WANT to treat your customers better.

This is so simple that most business owners miss it completely. I did. You REWARD them for talking nicely to your customers. You may find this a little annoying, but it will certainly pay dividends into your bank account. The better they are at saying the right things to your customers - the more your customers will spend with you. Reward your people for saying the right things and they will do it more, and when they do it more they'll discover the joy of treating people well, and they'll start doing it even more. It becomes infectious!