Keeping UP

How do you approach your morning? Specially your Monday morning? Do you have a heavy heart every start of each working week? It will carry its weight all through the days if you start off this way and it will rub on the business.

It is a universal truth that business thrives in a positive climate and this does not only mean an economic pink but a truly UP and high attitude of good possibilities.

How does one keep the business in a “high” that will encourage customers to stay with them and remain there?

It will start with one’s own attitude. Charles R. Swindol in his book on Great Attitudes, shares ten of the best approaches to each day that will lead one to succeed in business and in life.

For Swindol, optimism, excellence, confidence, joy, integrity, enthusiasm, cordiality, perseverance, humility, and generosity are key values that keep our spirits and our business high.

Training the mind to be optimistic is hard for a person who has always been deluded to believe that we live in a county of poverty and corruption. It will take determination to shed off the garment of losing and don the robe of knowing that possibilities are made real through taking on the right pursuits. Right pursuits are anchored on building knowledge that will open gateways to understanding and bring in clarity of focus.

When one knows what he is to do, how he is supposed to do it, and what to expect in the end, he gains more confidence. It is from this confidence that one can be more innovative, productive and open. It is from openness that one can pursue excellence, as he can already compare and discern what is better if not best. 

A manager of a meat shop watched his employee as he packed the purchase of one of his valued customers. He noted that the boy dug into their cooler and packed a few cubes of ice and wrapped them together with the purchased meat. The customer seemed so delighted at the effort and gave the boy a handsome tip. The boy bashfully refused the token apologizing so that the customer would not feel offended. “It is against our policy Ma’am” the manager heard the boy say.

After the customer had left, the manager asked the boy where he got the idea of such a policy. The boy smiled at his boss and said “When you hired us sir, you said that we have to treat our customers equally, giving them the attention they need so they will keep our business good. If I accept a tip from one customer, and the others do not give me a tip, I may end up favoring one over another.”

Knowing that the boy was the only breadwinner in his family, he looked at the boy with a mixture of bafflement and admiration. “It could have given you additional fare money or you could have saved it.”

“The overtime pay you gave me for the past quarter sir gave me enough to buy a bike which I now use as transport. I can even drop my brother to school before coming here,” the boy replied.

Paying just wages and maintaining a good communication line between you and your employees add to reinforcing their loyalty, zest for work and a positive frontline attitude that delight your customer further and keep them coming back.

Your own attitude has a great influence on those around you. A haughty salesclerk and a grumpy telephone operator will ripple their negative vibes to those they come in contact with. Others are influenced by your reactions and they act in the same reflex.